Fight, Flight, or Fancy
by turtlelly
Summary: A trio of femmes crashes on the new Cybertron. Their leader, a feisty femme, immediately proves herself to Optimus Prime by taking down his weapons specialist. Will this be the beginning of a bitter rivalry? Will Chromia obey her usual instincts of fight, or will it be flight? Or possibly even...fancy? Kinda sequel series to Bee My Love, but you don't need to have read it to enjoy
1. Chapter 1

Chromia leaned back in her chair and sighed disapprovingly at the blinking panel of controls in her ship's cockpit. Her navigator, Roller, had been offlined last week, killed by a small squadron of Starscream's Decepticons they had been trying to outrun for weeks now. He had been the only remaining crew, besides herself, Firestar and Strongarm, and the only bot who knew how to pilot the ship. The rest of her crew had either quit because of Chromia's temper, or had been killed by Decepticons.

Chromia was currently trying to coax her ship, Avenge, into hyperdrive so they could escape this particular dark area of the galaxy, which was technically Decepticon territory. However, the small sophisticated ship refused to budge even an inch.

"Frag it." Chromia cursed, seriously considering looking in the ship's manual. "Star!" She called, hoping maybe her friend would be more knowledgeable.

"Yes?" She called back cheerily, practically bouncing into the cockpit. The petite red and orange femme was always eager to help, her bright blue optics sparkling. Chromia mused that Roller had probably only stayed on the ship as long as he had because he had a crush on Firestar. Most mechs did.

"See if you can help me get the blasted hyperdrive started." Chromia said, "I swear to Primus I've tried every button in here."

"I seem to remember Roller doing something in this area to engage it." Firestar laughed sadly, "He was always so possessive over the cockpit." She pressed a few buttons experimentally, one of which turned on the radio link.

Instead of the usual silence of static that the crew had been used to for centuries, a calm stern voice sounded through the speakers. "I am Optimus Prime." The voice informed, "And I send this message to any remaining Autobots taking refuge among the stars. Cybertron has been restored. Come home."

"Cybertron restored?" Firestar said doubtfully once the message had concluded. She ran the coordinates of the transmission through and hmmed, "Well, he wasn't lying. He's on Cybertron."

"Are you suggesting we go?" Chromia stared at her incredulously, "Cybertron's been destroyed for centuries! It's got to be a trap."

"Well, he certainly sounded like a Prime; bossy." Firestar argued

"Plus," Strongarm interjected, poking her helm into the cockpit, "We could use some allies. If you haven't noticed, we're kind of short handed." She gestured to the empty ship.

"How long were you standing there, Ms. Ninja Bot?" Firestar eyed the blue and white femme

Strongarm shrugged, "Long enough."

Chromia sighed; they made a fair point. "Fine" She grumbled, "We'll go. But only if somebot can get the blasted hyperdrive started!"

"Yay!" Firestar said and eagerly got to work. Roughly ten minutes later she discovered the correct sequence of buttons, and the three femmes were slammed into hyperdrive, on their way home.

Once the ship had exited hyperdrive, about 400 klicks from Cybertron, Chromia swayed unsteadily on her peds and groaned.

"Next time, a little warning would be appreciated, Firestar!" Chromia grumbled, rubbing her sore helm.

"It's not my fault!" Firestar cried, which began an argument until one of the alarms sounded, interrupting their bickering.

The screen flashed red as the computer's monotone voice stated, "Enemy aircraft detected 10 klicks away. Ship patterns concurrent with Decepticon warship."

Chromia's optics widened. "Scrap!" She yelled, sprinting to the steering control and zooming the ship forward. "Strongarm!" She called over her shoulder, "Man the weapons!"

But they were being fired at before Strongarm could even reach the weapons system.

Strongarm and Firestar fell forward and sprawled on the floor, covering their helms, as Chromia slammed the craft forward at breathtaking speed. However, it wasn't quite fast enough.

A blast severed the right wing of the ship, and as they plummeted towards Cybertron the monotone voice stated, "Heavy damage sustained. Prepare for abrupt landing."

"Abrupt landing?" Chromia yelled, trying as hard as she could to pull the ship up, "Are you fragging kidding me, we're gonna crash not land!"

"Is this really what we're disputing with the computer as we fall to our deaths, Captain?" Firestar said sarcastically from the floor, "Whether it used the proper terminology to describe our deaths?"

"Shut up and get in your damn stasis pods." Chromia growled, still desperately trying to stabilize the ship.

"What about you?" Strongarm asked

"I'll be along in a minute."

Casting a worried look at the silver and blue femme, Strongarm grabbed Firestar's sevo and tugged her out of the cockpit to the stasis pods.

"Autobot aircraft in distress, does anyone copy?" Chromia shouted into the radio, swearing as the control panel sparked at her. She accepted that the ship was going to crash and instead refocused her efforts on getting it as close to where Optimus Prime's transmission had come from as she could. If anyone got injured in the crash, they were going to need medical help as soon as possible.

Gritting her denta, she pulled up on the steering wheel, keeping the ship aloft for as long as she could. Finally, when the ship was mere feet above the ground, she set it on autopilot and dove for the stasis pods. She bolted for one next to her already frozen teammates and by the time the thinnest layer of frost had coated her pod, the ship had smashed into the ground, plowing a large scar through the land.

A few minutes after the impact, there was a beeping noise among the wreckage and someone shouted in a static coated voice, "Autobot aircraft we are responding to your distress call and are sending a rescue squad. Hello?" The damaged radio fizzed in and out of static and came back, "Hello? Is anyone-"

The radio was answered with silence and the Autobot realizing this whispered, "Oh Primus, no. We're too late."


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Chromia heard as she began to regain consciousness was a whisper of anxious voices. Her optics remained shut so as to not alert them to the fact that she was awake, and she listened carefully to their tones, inferring that they were mechs.

Her first thought was, naturally, that the Decepticons that had been tailing them had finally caught up. She remained still for only a moment longer before erupting into action, lashing out at the nearest blur she saw when she opened her optics.

"Agggh! Primus ya damn femme, we're on your bloody side!" An angry silver mech yelled, glaring at her with fierce blue optics as he rubbed the bleeding scrape she had just gouged down his faceplates with her digits. _Blue_ , she realized, _his optics are blue._

"Sorry." She relaxed a little, "Defense mechanism.". She glanced at the other two mechs, one red and white and the other blue and red, before remembering her teammates.

"Primus!" She gasped, struggling to her peds and sprinting to the other femmes' stasis pods. She hit the disengage button and tapped her ped impatiently as the ice slowly melted.

"Who are they?" The silver mech said rudely and then shook his helm, "Nevermind, who are you?"

"What my colleague means," The red and blue mech said hastily, "Is that we would like to hear your stories after you've been treated by our medic, Red Alert." He gestured to the red and white mech, who nodded.

Chromia narrowed her optics at him, "Your voice sounds familiar….are you Optimus Prime? We heard your message."

"I am." He nodded to the silver mech, "This is my weapons specialist, Ironhide."

Chromia smirked, "An ironic name, considering it only takes one scratch to pierce your hide." He scowled at her, but she ignored him as Firestar and Strongarm slowly began to wake up.

"Easy femmes." She murmured, helping the two shivering bots out of their stasis pods, relieved. She was worried they might have been injured, but they both seemed fine.

Meanwhile, Optimus Prime and Ironhide seemed to have gotten into an argument and were debating under their breaths.

"We could always use more soldiers, Ironhide." Optimus said quietly

"Not more femmes, Prime." Ironhide groaned softly, "Look at 'em. They couldn't hold out on a battlefield."

"Excuse me!" Chromia interrupted angrily, "We may be femmes, but I could mop the floor with your aft any day of the week, Hotshot!"

Ironhide smirked, "I doubt it."

"Try me." Chromia growled

"Chromia, what are you doing?" Firestar was panicking, "We've barely been here five minutes and you've already picked a fight with someone?!"

Chromia waved her off, "I can take him."

Ironhide glanced at Optimus, "Permission to take her down a few pegs?"

Optimus nodded, "I would like to see how well she fights."

Ironhide sank into a defensive position and grinned, "Come at me, femme."

She rushed at him head on, but at the last minute ducked under his outstretched fist, spun around to be behind him, and slammed her elbow into his back. As he tried to turn and grab her, she knocked his legs out from him with a low, sweeping kick.

As he lay on the ground, struggling to regain his breath (and his pride), Chromia pinned his shoulders to the ground. "Getting a little sloppy, Mr. Weapons Specialist?" She grinned tauntingly as Optimus covered his mouth with his servo and tried not to laugh.

"I-you-" He sputtered, his faceplates growing a rageful and embarrassed blue, "You cheated!"

"Whatever you got to tell yourself to help you recharge at night." She smirked, getting off of him.

He stormed away from her angrily, snapping at Optimus, "What are you laughing at Prime?!"

"Nothing." Optimus coughed, hiding a grin

The silver mech transformed into a GMC Topkick and raced away, purposefully spitting large clouds of dust at Chromia with his back tires.

"Don't worry about him." Optimus chuckled, "He's just angry because you've wounded his pride. Chromia is it?"

Chomia nodded and gestured to her crew, "This is Firestar and Strongarm."

"It's nice to meet you." Optimus inclined his helm, "Chromia, I would like to offer you a place on my team. If your friends fight even half as well as you do, they are welcome as well."

"We would be honored, Optimus Prime." Chromia sighed

"I will need to perform medical scans on the three of you." Red Alert said, "When we get back to base, could you follow me to the Medbay?"

The three femmes nodded and transformed into their alt modes, a blue Suzuki B-King, a red Mazda BT-50 pickup truck, and a blue and white Dodge Charger police car, and followed Red Alert's ambulance back to the Autobot base, leaving the wreckage of their ship behind.

Once Red Alert finished his medical scans and started work on medical files for each of them, he sent them along to a white and red tactician bot named Prowl.

He was in the middle of explaining where all of their new quarters were when a group of mechs walked by and sniggered, "Look, the gay's scaring the newbies."

Prowl's faceplates flushed an angry blue as Chromia started to say to them angrily, "Who in Pit do you think you-"

Firestar clapped a servo over her mouth until the mechs had passed, "Already had one fight today, Captain, I don't think we could handle more."

"What a bunch of stupid, pretentious aftholes." Chromia muttered angrily, and Prowl blinked, surprised, before grinning

"I was just thinking the same thing."

"So, you're um-so yeah?" Chromia tried to ask and Firestar and Strongarm burst out laughing.

"Sorry, she's not the best conversationalist." Firestar cracked up

Prowl smiled, "It's fine. I am gay if that's what you were so poorly attempting to ask. My, um, partner should be around here somewhere."

"Oh cool." Chromia nodded, "How long have you guys been together?"

Prowl stared at her, bemused, "You know, I think that's the most normal reaction I've ever gotten to telling someone about Jazz. I knew I liked you." His faceplates flushed happily, 'It's been just over two years now since we were official."

"Wow, that's a long time." Strongarm said excitedly, "Are you guys going to bond?"

Prowl shrugged, "I dunno. He wants to but...I'm just not sure now is a good time, with the war and all. Well " He clapped his servos together, "That's enough about my personal life. You three should go get some recharge; knowing Optimus he'll want to talk to you first thing tomorrow."

The femmes said goodbye to Prowl, who had buried his faceplates in a datapad by the time they turned around, and headed to where he had directed. They were pleased to find they all had quarters next to each other, with Chromia's in the middle and Firestar and Strongarm on either side of her.

Strongarm, the youngest, was the first to fall into recharge, with Firestar following soon after. Chromia lay awake, listening to the silence coming from the two femme's room, punctuated by the occasional snore from Strongarm, and contemplating the tumultuous events of the day. Attacked by Decepticons, forced to go into stasis, took down a stuck up Autobot, got invited onto the Autobot team, made a gay friend...it had been quite a day.

Chromia briefly wondered if anybot on the team would like her. What Firestar had said was true; she did pick too many fights, and as a result most bots were driven off by her brash attitude. But she couldn't help it; she was a riley femme, always itching to fight.

Chromia shook her helm and turned over to go into recharge, resolving that if anybot didn't like her, they could go frag themselves. She had her femmes, and that was always enough.


	3. Chapter 3

Optimus commed them bright and early the next day, when Cybertron's sun had barely risen. Firestar and Strongarm practically had to drag Chromia out of her berth, and then the three sleepy femmes reported to Prime's office.

He was already fully wide awake of course, and he looked as if he had been up for hours working on datapads. He greeted all of them by name (Chromia was surprised he remembered), and asked them to have a seat.

"I trust you recharged well?" He asked and Chromia practically had to bite her glossa off holding back a remark that they would have recharged better if he hadn't woken them at this ungodly hour.

She said instead, "Well enough"

"Good." Optimus nodded, "If you three feel up to it, I would like to hear your stories."

So Chromia told him the story, with Firestar and Strongarm interjecting. Avenge had originally been a ship on Cybertron's fleet, until the ships had to be scattered throughout space when Cybertron was destroyed, to prevent Decepticons from locating and obliterating the fleet.

The crew, with Chromia as its leader, had waited several years to hear news from Cybertron command, giving them orders to take action, but none ever came. Finally, they set out on a search for the remainder of the Autobots and had been traveling the galaxies ever since, steadily losing crew members until their number had dwindled down to three.

"It must have been very hard to watch your teammates go before you." Optimus said sympathetically

"It was." Chromia said quietly, and Firestar and Strongarm looked down at the floor.

"Well, I hope that you three will become a part of our team, and gain some new teammates to make up for the ones you have lost." Optimus said kindly, "However, all members of the team have a position, a job to do. I would like to know what you femmes would be interested in doing."

There was a silence before Strongarm said shyly, "I always wanted to do something in law enforcement."

"I'm a wicked sharpshooter!" Firestar grinned

"I can fight pretty well." Chromia shrugged

"Perfect." A small smile tugged at his faceplates, pleased at how eager they were, "Strongarm, my son Bumblebee is the current lieutenant of the New Iacon Police Force, and I know he could use all the help he can get. I could set you up with an apprenticeship with him." Strongarm fairly glowed with happiness and he continued, "Firestar, most of my soldiers are hand to hand combat, so it will do us some good to have a long range shooter. When we go out on missions, you can operate the door guns in the ships, and cover us if we are fighting on a battle field." He paused at Chromia, "Chromia, I could use you on missions and in fights, but..."

"But?" Chromia raised an optic ridge

"There is somewhere else you could be very useful, although you most likely will not enjoy the position."

"What is it?"

Optimus sighed, "Jazz and Ironhide run the training center, and currently they are overwhelmed by the large numbers of new, untrained bots that have arrived. I was going to suggest you help them train some of the new bots, but given your current situation with Ironhide, I am not sure that would work out well."

"Ummmm." Chromia looked uneasy, "I can handle him, I guess."

"Thank you, Chromia." Prime nodded, "It would be very helpful of you. So" He smiled at them, "Would you like to get started today?"

"Yes!" Firestar and Strongarm chimed happily and Chromia threw in a half hearted, "Yeah..."

Optimus nodded, "Good. I will comm Ironhide to let him know you are coming, Chromia, and Firestar, I will also comm Prowl to tell him you are meeting him before the mission he is organizing today at 3 o'clock. Strongarm, you may accompany me in seeking out Lieutenant Bumblebee."

Strongarm happily followed Optimus out of the room and Firestar offered to escort Chromia to the training room.

"Well, this should be fun." Chromia grumbled

"Just try to be friendly." Firestar advised nervously as they came to a stop outside the training room, "He's probably past the whole face-scrape and humilating takedown thing by now."

"It's only been a day, Star."

"Exactly." Firestar beamed and patted Chromia's back encouragingly, "Now, go get 'em tiger!". She skipped happily down the hall and around a corner, and Chromia took a steadying breath before pushing open the doors to the training room.

It was very early in the morning, so of course the only two bots in the training room were Ironhide and a slim black and white bot with a glowing blue visor. The two were currently engaged in a sparring match, but Ironhide's optics snapped up to her as soon as she entered the room, distracting him for long enough that the other bot could take him down.

Ironhide hissed out a few choice curse words as his back hit the mat, and his partner chuckled. "Watcher, 'Hide. We got a lady present."

Ironhide glared venomously at Chromia, "What in Pit are you doing here? Come to gloat?"

She blinked, "I'm guessing Prime hasn't sent you that comm yet."

"What comm?" He seethed, just a moment before he recieved the comm. He shot Chromia another glare before walking away, a digit pressed to his audio receptor.

"When did ya shit in his bucket?" The black and white mech asked

Chromia cringed, "Yesterday. I kind of took him down to show Prime I was good enough for the team. Also 'cuz he was pissing me off a little."

"Ya took 'Hide down?" He grinned, "Damn, girl." He was silent for a moment and then stuck out his servo, "Name's Jazz."

"Chromia." She shook the servo, "Jazz...I've heard that name before. You know Prowl somehow, right?"

Jazz flashed her a triumphant smile, "I see you've met my dreamy boyfriend."

"He actually referred to you as his 'partner'. " Chromia's lips twisted into a mocking smile

" 'Partner'?" Jazz frowned, "Don't have as nice of a ring to it. He can be a bit of a stick in the mud at times, but I love 'im to death."

"Glad to hear it." Chromia smiled, "Me and my femmes got your backs if anybot tries to hassle you about it."

"Doncha worry, girl" Jazz flexed his muscles, "I can handle it." Chromia laughed a little and he added, "But thanks for the offer."

Ironhide finished his comm with Optimus and came back, folding his arms. "What on Cybertron made you think it would be a good idea to volunteer for this position?" He raised an optic ridge

"Volunteer?!" Chromia sputtered, "Prime practically begged me to take it! He said you guys were having a hard time keeping up with all the new recruits."

Jazz nodded, "We are-"

"But we don't need your help." 'Hide interupted, "You're just a-"

"Femme?" Chromia asked calmly, "You're absolutely right, I am a femme.". She walked past him towards the door, patting his cheek as she went by, "That scar is healing quite nicely, isn't it Ironhide?"

Jazz whooped as Ironhide turned a nasty shade of blue, "You are the most annoying femme I have ever met!"

"Yeah?" Chromia grinned, "Well, get used to it. 'Cuz starting today, I'll be seeing your ugly mug every damn day of the week."

She let the door bang shut behind her on the sound of Ironhide's cursing and Jazz's laughter.

"So femmes." Chromia said wearily, "How were your first days at your positions?". The three femmes were relaxing in Chromia's room after their first day of work.

"Epic!" Firestar chimed, "Got to take down some Decepticon scum while covering Sunstreaker's bright yellow aft from the ship."

Strongarm sighed happily, "Everything was perfect. The position, the hours, the lieutenant..."

" 'The lieutenant' ?" Firestar mimicked Strongarm's wistful sigh and laughed, "Sounds like somebot's got the hots for Bumblebee!"

Strongarm blushed,"He's so hot. I can't help it!"

"He's got a bonded, you know." Firestar pointed out

"And a sparkling." Chromia added

"So?" Strongarm sputtered, "It's not like I'm trying to bond with him. I'm allowed to crush..." She frowned, "The only bad part about the job was this jerkwad named Sideswipe who's supposed to be my 'partner'."

"Why is he already a jerkwad?" Chromia frowned

"He splashed mud all over my frame!" Strongarm complained, "On purpose! It took hours to clean it all off. And then he tried to stick one of his wet digits in my audio receptor! I mean I always thought bots my age were a little bit immature, but this is ridiculous."

"Sounds like somebot likes you." Firestar snickered

"I'm going to shove him into a trash compactor the first chance I get." Strongarm said gloomily

Chromia was a little surprised, but unashamed to find herself wondering if she could arrange such a fate for Ironhide.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the course of a week, Chromia met almost every bot in the base, including Optimus, Prowl, Red Alert, Ironhide, Blaster, Jazz, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Magnia, Bumblebee, and Ravenblade, as well as a few young bots. Ravenblade was the sparkling of Magnia and Bumblebee, and she was about 2 solar cycles old(2 year old stage), and Chromia had heard all about the three of them's stories from Firestar, who had become a bit of a gossip since she arrived and had other bots to talk to. Trying to keep track of how many grandfathers Ravenblade had made her helm hurt, so she basically just remembered Optimus as being one of them.

Optimus had said that there was another team of bots stationed on Earth, as well as a few allies like Knockout and Roulette scattered throughout Iacon, and it was a comfort to Chromia to know they had so many warriors. The only bot she hadn't met was Smokescreen.

She finally met the blue and white bot when he zoomed past her in the hall near the training room.

"Hi, I'm Smokescreen!" He yelled over the roar of the rocket boots attached to his peds. He was attempting to hover in front of her, but one of the boots seemed to have more power than the other, and kept surging up, throwing him off balance.

"Ummmm...I'm Chromia?" She looked at him, bewildered

"Sorry about the noise!" He shouted, "I volunteered to test out Blaster's new rocket boots for him!"

"I can see that" She raised an optic ridge

"I was just heading to see Ironhide!"

"Oh, great." Chromia said sarcastically

"I know, he is great!" Smokescreen shouted, and Chromia sighed, "Hey, you wanna try these out?"

"No" Chromia said almost immediately. Smokescreen looked a little dejected and Chromia internally cursed herself before saying, "Alright, fine." She was trying to make friends here, and letting people down wasn't going to do it.

Smokescreen looked scarily ecstatic, and shut the boots down, landing with a small bang on the floor. He clumped over to Chromia and tugged the boots off of his peds before handing them to her excitedly.

"It's so much fun!" He chattered happily, attaching the boots to Chromia's peds through a series of loops and latches that Chromia was certain would never come off.

Then, without warning, Smokescreen pressed the on button and Chromia shot up into the air.

"Yahhhhhh!" She screamed, streaking down the hall, "Heeeeeelp!"

"Sorry Chromia!" Smokescreen yelled, sprinting to keep up with her, "I'll get some help!". He banged on the door of the training room as Chromia bounced around in the large open space next to it.

 _"Please be Jazz, please be Jazz."_ Chromia prayed internally, _"Please don't be-"_

The door to the training room flew open and of course Ironhide emerged, yelling to Smokescreen, "What-?". And then he caught sight of the flailing Chromia.

He simply stared for a moment before bursting into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Chromia" He gasped, laughing so hard, "What-are you-doing?"

"Your stupid fanboy convinced me to try out these damn rocket boots, and now I can't-Scrap!" She practically did a flip in the air to avoid smashing through a ceiling beam.

"You have to help!" Smokescreen urged

" 'Have to'?" Ironhide smirked, "I don't know about 'have to' "

"Ironhide, you fragger! You better help me or I swear to Primus I'll give you a scar to match the one on your other cheek!"

"You can do it!" Smokescreen's optics practically shone with hero worship, "C'mon Ironhide"

"Femme in distress here" Chromia moaned, getting a little dizzy from the rocket boots zooming her around

"Fine." Ironhide grumbled, "Woulda been fun to watch her fly around a little longer though." He hopped up on a large crate and snagged Chromia's ankle as she flew by, deactivating the rocket boots.

She let out a terrified little shriek as she began to fall quickly to the floor, but a pair of powerful silver arms caught her just in time.

Chromia let out a little breath and looked up to see Ironhide staring down at her. Realizing where she was, she quickly struggled out of his arms, and started off towards the training room with an embarrassed huff.

"You're welcome!" Ironhide called, annoyed, and Chromia spun around and gritted her denta.

"Thank you."

He raised an optic ridge, "You sound like you swallowed poison saying that."

"I may as well have." Chromia rolled her optics, "Come on. We're late for training." Shaking his helm, Ironhide followed her into the training room.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The three bots had a lot of eager new bots to train that day, and by the end of it they were all exhausted. Ironhide and Jazz began sparring again, and as they practiced, Jazz realized something.

"Ya know..." He looked between the two of them, "Me and 'Hide have sparred, and me and 'Mia have sparred." Chromia smiled at the cute nickname, "But you two have never sparred together, have ya?"

"No!" Ironhide objected, "There was that one time….when you weren't here…."

Jazz crossed his arms and raised an optic ridge, "When I weren't here? 'Hide, I practically live here."

Ironhide glanced at Chromia, "Back me up here, would ya?"

Chromia shook her helm, "I think we should sparr. That way we'll know if one of us is doing something wrong, because we wouldn't hesitate to point it out." She patted Jazz's shoulder, "Jazz is too nice."

Jazz pouted a little, "I'm not nice! I'm mean, girl, a mean machine!"

"Fine" Ironhide grumbled, "But don't expect me to go easy on ya"

Chromia rolled her optics at his comment, but didn't say anything and they began to fight. For a while it seemed they were evenly matched, but Chromia soon began to notice that every time she got behind Ironhide, he wouldn't know what to do.

"Ironhide" She said, exasperated, "What in Pit are you going to do if a Decepticon gets behind you on a battlefield?"

"I don't know" He said, a little annoyed, "I'm surprised you haven't flipped me over and humiliated me yet."

She huffed, "That's because I'm not trying to humiliate you this time. I could just as easily tell you what you're doing wrong instead of showing you. You know, you could always try dropping into a crouch and kicking them in the shins. They definitely wouldn't be expecting-"

"Femme, I don't need your bloody help!" Ironhide snapped and Chromia's optic ridges drew together in a scowl. Moving quickly, she spun behind him, grabbed his shoulders, and flipped him over her leg and onto the floor.

"Would you stop being such a sexist pig for five minutes and realize I am actually trying to help you, something I very rarely do?!" She shouted, "WITH ANYONE?!"

Jazz covered his mouth with his servo and Ironhide looked extremely surprised before getting pissed, "I didn't ask for your damn help, femme! Why in Pit do you even want to help me anyways?!"

"Because you're being stupid and you're going to get yourself offlined!" She yelled, "And I refuse to lose any more teammates, even a stubborn, proud mech like yourself!"

Ironhide stared at her, "What do you mean, any more? No one's offlined on this team since you got here"

Chromia closed her optics and sighed, "I didn't mean on this team"

" 'Mia…." Jazz started, but Chromia shook her helm wearily

"I'm calling it quits for today….I'll see you mechs tomorrow." Chromia turned and walked out abruptly. She headed back to her quarters, resolving to get some recharge, while fiercely pushing the despairing thoughts about her former teammates out of her processor. She didn't want to think about that now.

She didn't ever want to think about that.


	5. Chapter 5

_She was in his arms again, but this time it was different. This time she could feel the lust boiling under her skin as he carried her to his quarters, closing the door behind him with a snap._

 _He pushed her roughly down on his berth and held her wrists above her helm, gazing at her._

 _"Well?" She finally said impatiently "I'm waiting!"_

 _His faceplates split into that irritating, irresistibly sexy smirk of his, "I know. I plan to make you beg for it."_

 _"You know I can hold out longer than you can." Chromia dragged a digit across his chassis, scratching just hard enough._

 _"Chromia." He moaned, "Dammit femme, why do you have to be so sexy?" He licked his lips and Chromia smiled a triumphant grin._

 _"You better be rough with me, tiger." She said seductively "I like it rough."_

 _He grinned again and pounced on top of her, "Fine by me." Then he came closer and whispered in her audio receptor, "Wake up, femme"_

Chromia woke up with a gasp, wrenching out of her covers into a sitting position. Firestar and Strongarm were gathered around her berth, and Firestar removed her servos from Chromia's shoulders, which she had been shaking.

"Thank Primus." Firestar sighed ,Chromia, we've been trying to wake you up. You were moaning in your sleep; you sounded like you were in pain."

Chromia flushed a deep blue and pushed past the femmes to her bathroom. She splashed energon on her faceplates and neck as Strongarm asked, "Are you okay? Your fans are overheating"

"Fine" Chromia said hoarsely, her spark still fluttering in her chassis.

"Wait..." Firestar grabbed Chromia's shoulders and spun her around, "Are you blushing?" She grabbed Strongarm's shoulder with her other servo and shook both of them, "Strongarm! She's blushing! Chromia doesn't blush!"

"You know what that means..." Strongarm said slyly

"It means nothing!" Chromia insisted, shrugging Firestar's servo and heading towards her berth, "I'm going back to recharge."

"Oh no you're not!" Firestar tackled her and they both fell into a heap on the berth. Firestar pinned a struggling Chromia down and hooted, "You had an interface dream! Admit it!"

"Fine" Chromia snapped, "I did. So what?" She pushed Firestar off of her and sat on the edge of her berth, rubbing her forehelm.

"So what?" Firestar sat next to her and Strongarm sat on the other side, "So what, she asks me. I'll tell you what, you are never, ever attracted to anybot, so therefore this is a huge deal! What's his name?"

"Is it Bumblebee?" Strongarm asked eagerly

"You know, Prime is kinda hot when you look at him in the right light" Firestar started but Strongarm and Chromia both just stared at her and she wilted a little, "Okay, nevermind"

"Tell us!" Strongarm pleaded

"No!" Chromia shook her helm fiercely, "I won't, because it doesn't matter! You two know me, you know I don't ever get into relationships. Nothing is going to happen."

"Fine, we'll let it go for now." Firestar sighed and then said sternly, "But, you have to tell us as soon as anything happens!"

"Fine." Chromia shook herself, "I'm going back to recharge. Good night femmes."

"Good night." They yawned and returned to their quarters.

Chromia tried to go into recharge, but every time she remembered the feeling of his bulk on top of her, his hips pressed against hers, her spark began to race again. Finally she sat up with a groan and began getting ready for the day.

It was still dark outside when she slipped out of her quarters and headed to the training room, resolving to train hard to take her processor off it.

She set up a training dummy and had been going at it for about five minutes when she felt a tap on her arm, making her jump about a mile out of her armour.

She spun around and Ironhide jumped back, chuckling nervously, "Don't claw my faceplates off again, please."

"Sorry" She exhaled, her optics darting back and forth as she looked at the ground, "I'm having a bit of a...jumpy morning."

Ironhide looked at her closely, wondering what was making her so skittish; she was usually so calm and controlled, unless she got angry. But now she just looked...freaked out. He remembered her comment about her former teammates yesterday and thought that she must have been thinking about what happened to them all night because of him.

"Hey" He said guiltily,"Sorry I, um, blew up at you yesterday; It was uncalled for. You were just trying to help."

"You sound like you swallowed poison saying that." Chromia laughed shakily

"I may as well have." He chuckled and Chromia marveled at how quickly the low sound sent shivers down her spine.

 _What in Pit is happening to me?,_ She wondered, T _his is still Ironhide, the same annoying, sexist mech I was angry at yesterday. Nothing has changed, one weird dream aside_.

She took a breath, steadying her circuits, and said in a calmer voice, "What you said yesterday was true; you did not ask for my help." She turned and looked at him, "But neither did anyone else on my former team. And I often wonder if they had my knowledge, my fighting skills, perhaps they would be alive." Ironhide moved to put a servo on her shoulder, but she shifted so he couldn't touch her and continued, "I am not going to make the same mistake again; you are going to get my advice whether you want it or not. That way if you are…." Her voice wavered a little on the word, "offlined, I can at least know I did everything I could."

"Would you care if I offlined?" He asked suddenly

She studied him, "Do you mean regardless of the fact that you are extremely sexist, arrogant, and stubborn as Pit?"

He rolled his optics, "Yes, besides that fact, Oh Wise One"

She smiled quietly, "Maybe." 

"Maybe?" He said, exasperatedly waving his servos around, "After I just let all those insults slip, by all I get is a 'maybe'?" Chromia could tell he was holding back a smile

"Yes, that's what you get." She said forcefully, "And you're lucky I didn't just straight up say no. Now, we need to work on your defense from certain positions..."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooO

When Jazz walked into the training room an hour later and found Ironhide and Chromia sparring, he nearly dropped the bag of new equipment he was carrying, startled that no one was yelling at each other.

They turned to him as he grinned and said, "Well, I guess you guys do sparr when I'm not here."


	6. Chapter 6

As the weeks wore on, Chromia settled into her life in the Autobot base and starting getting along with bots more, even Ironhide, although they still had a few spats now and then.

She was on her way to another day of training bots when she bumped into Prowl, scattering a few of the datapads he was carrying.

"Sorry Prowl" Chromia said sheepishly, helping him pick up the datapads

"It's fine, Chromia." Prowl laughed, "It's just my reports to Optimus. He won't mind if some of them are cracked." He handed her a datapad from the top of his stack, "Would you mind giving this to Jazz for me when you see him?"

"Love letters?" Chromia grinned wickedly, trying to turn the datapad on and discovering it was locked with a passcode.

"Glitch, please." Prowl rolled his optics, "Like I would put my love letters in your servos."

Chromia laughed at Prowl's unusually sassy remark as Optimus came around the corner. He spotted the stack of datapads and said, "Prowl, I can take those." Prowl handed them to him complacently and Optimus asked, "Have you found anymore WC signals?"

"No." Prowl said glumly, at the same time Chromia asked, "What's a WC?"

"Wandering Cybertronian" Prowl explained

"It's been nearly a month since we found one, and that was you and your femmes, Chromia." Optimus sighed, "I would hate to believe it, but you femmes may have been the last Autobots, which would mean there are only about forty of us left."

"Primus." Chromia shook her helm

"Luckily the Well is still at full functioning and giving sparks to all of the Cybertronians being born." Prowl said, trying to lighten the mood, "It won't be just the forty of us forever."

"True." Chromia agreed. She said goodbye to the two mechs and continued on to the training room.

Jazz and Ironhide were already there, and Ironhide was in the middle of training Smokescreen while Jazz watched.

She crossed the room and handed him the datapad, "Here. It's from Prowl."

"Thank you, darlin' " Jazz opened the datapad and typed in the security passcode as Chromia watched Ironhide and Smokescreen.

They were goofing off a lot more than actually training, and the way they acted reminded Chromia of an older and younger brother. Ironhide grabbed Smokescreen in a loose chokehold and noogied his helm, grinning as Smokescreen tried to get free.

" 'Hide" He laughed finally, "Leggo, I can't get out."

"Naw, kid" Ironhide smirked, "I ain't lettin ya out; you gotta get out yourself."

As Smokescreen continued to struggle uselessly, Chromia turned to Jazz, who was still reading, "Aren't they cute?"

Jazz smiled, his visor still trained on the screen, "Smokescreen's practically 'Hide's little bro. He looks up to him a lot." He finished reading the datapad and shoved it and his servos in his subspaces, still wearing that happy grin.

"What'd it say?"

"What'd what say?" He replied distractedly

"The datapad."

"Oh." Jazz grinned, "Chromia, you're single right?"

Chromia's mouth dropped open and about a thousand thoughts ran through her processor, "Why?"

"Because if you are" Jazz chuckled, "Then I can tease you mercilessly about how I have a date tonight and you don't!" He began turning cartwheels and handsprings, singing, "I got a date with my hot boyfriend toooooniiiiiight!"

"Really?" Chromia laughed as Jazz cartwheeled in a full circle around her and sprung up off his servos to stand beside her, "That's great!"

Jazz's visor shone happily, "Yup. He finished his work early, so now he's all miiiiiine" He hugged himself and said to her, "You and 'Hide can handle the training room for the night, can't ya?"

"Sure." Chromia smiled as Jazz fist pumped, "Damn, you're really excited, huh? It's just a date."

"Prowler and I don't go on too many dates." Jazz was now examining the condition of his armour, wondering if it was too late to go get a polish.

"Why is that?"

Jazz said nonchalantly, "He's busy. I'm busy. People look at us weird while on said date."

"Bastards." Chromia said automatically and then sighed, "That must really suck, Jazz."

Jazz shrugged, "It bothers Prowler more than it bothers me. I really couldn't give less of a frag what people think."

"Good." Chromia clapped Jazz on the back, "I hope you guys have a wonderful time."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Jazz stuck around for another hour, bouncy and impatient for the day to be over the whole time, until Ironhide and Chromia finally told him to quit bugging them and go get ready for his date.

He flew out the door of the training room, shouting back, "I'll see you single pringles later!"

Ironhide and Chromia glanced at each other, uneasy since they hadn't been alone together in a while, and Chromia couldn't help but wonder when Jazz said "single pringles" if Ironhide was included in that as well.

"Wanna spar?" He asked, interrupting her somewhat disturbing train of thought.

"A chance to humiliate you again?" She teased, "How could I ever turn that down?"

Ironhide grinned, "Not this time, femme. I've been practicing."

"Have you now?" They began sparring, ducking around each other's blows and blocking. Eventually, Chromia got behind Ironhide, fully expecting him to mess up and try to reach behind himself. But instead, he dropped into a crouch and kicked her legs out from under her, and surprised, she toppled over on top of him.

Chromia winced and rubbed her nose from where it had banged against his chassis and looked up into his startled blue optics. Their frames were parallel to the ground, and his arm was curled around her waist from when they had fallen.

She could feel his intakes hitch as he said, "Well. That wasn't what I thought would happen."

She raised an optic ridge, "What did you think would happen if you knocked my legs out?"

He flushed, "Honestly? I thought you would dodge it somehow. Or maybe fall over backwards."

"Ah"

There was a silence for a moment and then, "...You're still on top of me."

"Scrap." Chromia turned a little blue and rolled off of him, "Sorry." She stood and said awkwardly, "I'm gonna go, um, work with the training dummy."

He grinned at her discomfort, but just nodded. Who knew Chromia could get so embarrassed?

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

When they day was finally over, Chromia said goodnight to Ironhide and began walking back to her quarters. About halfway there, she remembered she had left her ankle plates in the training room from when she had been rolling her ankles.

She returned to the darkened room, and realized quickly that there was someone in there, in the dark. She flipped on the lights quickly, revealing the bot training at the punching bag.

It was Jazz, his back to her. She sighed, relieved and said, "Hey Jazz."

"Hey." He replied quickly, throwing another punch at the bag.

She went to grab her ankle plates and then stopped, remembering something, "Jazz...aren't you supposed to be on a date with Prowl?"

He let out a shaky laugh, leaning his helm against the punching bag, "Supposed to be."

Confused, she went up to him and a put a servo on his shoulder, and he jerked around to look at her. And Chromia saw that Jazz, happy, sparkly, upbeat Jazz, had tears slipping silently down his faceplates.

"Jazz!" She said, shocked, "What happened?"

He wiped the tears away from his optics, doorwings drooping, "Me and my big fat mouth."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Just as a heads up, the next few chapters are about the relationships between characters other than Chromia and Ironhide(Bee/Magnia, Jazz/Prowl) Skip ahead to chapter 11 if you want.**

Chromia pulled Jazz over to the bench and had him sit down, her optics concerned, "Are you okay? You're not injured, are you?"

"I'm not okay." Jazz shook his helm sadly, "But I'm not injured. At least not physically."

Chromia hesitated and then began to rub his back comfortingly, "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Jazz shook his helm glumly, but said, "I'm gonna anyways though."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

 _Jazz had been waiting outside the base where Prowl had told him, listening to some music while he waited._

 _He suddenly felt two arms wrap around his waist from behind as Prowl leaned his helm against his back, whispering in his audio receptor, "You're not dancing."_

 _"Hmmmm?" Jazz was a little distracted by Prowl's breath on his neck._

 _"You always dance like crazy to this song."_

 _Jazz grinned; Prowl was right, this was one of the songs that got him pumping. "But Prowl." Jazz said mischievously, "I know how much ya like to watch me dance. I don' wanna get ya all fired up before the evenin's even started!"_

 _Prowl laughed and released him finally, spinning him around so their noses were touching, "I suppose we better get on with the evening then?"_

 _"Exactly." Jazz winked at him, "Ya gotta eat the dinner before ya eat the dessert."_

 _Prowl raised an optic ridge at him, "Did you just refer to yourself as dessert?"_

 _"Maybe."_

 _Prowl rolled his optics and grabbed Jazz's servo, tugging him away into the metallic forest, "Come on, goofball. Time for our date."_

 _Prowl dragged him to a hill with one tree at the top. There was a blanket spread out underneath it, and some cubes of energon. Cybertron's sun was just beginning to set as they settled under the tree, backs leaning against it, as Jazz gazed at the romantic scene before him._

 _"Prowler...this is perfect." Jazz sighed happily, pulling Prowl closer to him. Prowl snuggled into his chassis and they watched the sunset together. When the sun finally went down, Prowl stretched out on the blanket and pulled Jazz down with him to look at the stars._

 _Jazz's visor was bright and happy, and he kissed the top of Prowl's helm, "Prowl?"_

 _"Hmmm?" Prowl sighed contentedly_

 _"I-I love you." Jazz felt the tactician bot stiffen against him almost as soon as he said those words._

 _"Jazz...please, I've asked you not to-" Prowl sighed, "I'm not ready for that."_

 _"I know, and I hate pushin' ya like this, but..." Jazz's doorwings drooped, "We've been together over two years now. When are you gonna be ready?"_

 _Prowl sat up, pulling away from him, "I don't see why you have to be so insistent about this. Why is it so important that I tell you now?"_

 _"Because, Prowler." Jazz rubbed his forehelm wearily, "I wanna know that I mean as much to you as you do to me. That yer not just here for the-for a good time."_

 _"Did you just accuse me of using you?" Prowl sputtered angrily, "Primus, Jazz! You_ _know_ _I would never do something like that! Don't you already know how much I care about you?"_

 _"How am I supposed to know that, Prowler?" Jazz whispered sadly, "Yer so cold sometimes...sometimes I can't even tell what yer feelin' "_

 _"Cold? Cold, Jazz, you think I'm cold?!" Prowl clenched his servos angrily, "You just wait, saboteur boy; you'll see how_ _cold_ _I can be!" He stormed away angrily, tears of fury and sadness stinging his optics._

 _Jazz stood alone on the hill under the stars, his chassis heaving with suppressed sobs, as he called in a desperately wobbly voice, "Prowler?"_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"I've messed everythin' up." Jazz sobbed, "The date, our friendship, our relationship...I knew I shouldnta pushed him, but I did anyways 'cuz I just had to know."

"Jazz-oh Jazz, no." Chromia pulled him into a hug as he shook, "Jazz it's not your fault. Anybody would want to know if the bot they've loved for two years loved them back."

Jazz just shook his helm sadly, "I don' get why he doesn't want to tell me he loves me. I mean, with me, it feels like it's just explodin' out of me; everytime I see him I want to tell him over and over again how much I love him. I don' know how if he does love me, how he can keep it inside."

"Why don't you go and try to talk to him tomorrow?" Chromia suggested, "He'll be calmed down and maybe he'll explain."

"Okay" Jazz said broken-heartedly, and Chromia led him back to his quarters, telling him to go into recharge.

He looked so much like a lost little sparkling that Chromia's spark practically broke. "Thanks 'Mia." He mumbled unhappily and shut the door.

Chromia's temper flared at seeing a good friend so hurt, and she stormed down the hall towards Prowl's office, intent on giving the tactician bot a piece of her processor.

Of course, she bumped into Ironhide on her way there. Literally. She had to flail her arms frantically just to maintain her balance after smacking right into his chassis and bouncing off.

She rubbed her faceplates and scowled up at him, "Move, Colossus. You're in my way."

"Primus, someone's in a pissy mood." Ironhide raised an optic ridge, "Who are ya on your way to glare at until they spontaneously combust?"

"Wow." Chromia said sarcastically, "I'm surprised 'spontaneously' is in your vocabulary."

"Ya know what, I'm gonna be an amazing gentlebot and ignore that little insult 'cuz I can tell you're stuck in your usual anger rut." Ironhide said smoothly, "Now, who do I gotta stop ya from beating offline?"

"Prowl" Chromia said mutinously

"Prowl?" Ironhide said disbelievingly, "What'd that bookworm do to you?"

"Not to me." Chromia sighed, "To Jazz." She told 'Hide the whole spark-breaking story (excluding the part where Jazz had cried of course, because what are friends for?).

Ironhide was furious, "What? That glitchhead; what a dumb thing to say."

"I know!" Chromia exclaimed, "You should come help me beat 'im up. I bet between the two of us, we'll be able to take him down"

"Wait, wait, we can't just go beat Prowl up." Ironhide shook his helm

"Why not?" Chromia said impatiently

Ironhide narrowed his optics, "Okay 1) He's our teammate 2) He's the second in command, and I'm pretty sure attackin' him is some form of treason and 3) If we get mad at him for what he said to Jazz, he'll know Jazz told you, and he'll be mad at him more."

"Oh scrap." Chromia was quiet for a minute

"And." Ironhide added, "Prowl does care about Jazz; I mean he came out for Jazz and risked his job and everythin' important to him. If they both care about each other, they'll work it out."

"Yeah..." Chromia sighed, remembering how happy Prowl had been that day when she first met him and he told her about Jazz. "Dammit 'Hide." She scrubbed her faceplates with one servo wearily, "Why ya gotta be so rational all of a sudden?"

He smirked, "Somebody's gotta keep yer temper in check."

Chromia rolled her optics but smiled a little, and Firestar choose that exact moment to walk by and see Chromia smiling at Ironhide.

Her jaw dropped and her optics grew to the size of periwinkle marbles as Chromia panicked and said, "No! No, no, no, no!", knowing exactly what Firestar was thinking.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!" She cackled gleefully as Chromia shoved her down the hall, away from a confused Ironhide.

"Not a word out of you femme, or I swear I'll weld your lip compnents shut!" Chromia growled

"Is it him?" Firestar asked eagerly

Chromia almost immediately said, "No."

"Don't lie to me Captain; you were smiling at him!"

"So?" Chromia tried to look indifferent, "I smile at a lot of mechs."

"Like who?"

"Ummmm." Chromia considered, "Jazz...and Prowl."

"Jazz and Prowl are gay." Firestar raised an optic ridge, "They're as easy for you to smile at as femmes"

"Smokescreen." Chromia said helplessly, "I smile at Smokescreen."

Firestar rolled her optics, "Smokescreen's like an adorable little puppy. It's impossible not to smile at him. Plus you've never smiled at him with that helm-over-peds-in-love smile you just gave Ironhide."

"Helm-over-peds-in-love?!" Chromia sputtered, "What in Pit are you talking about?!"

"Face it, Chromia." Firestar grinned, ignoring her friend's protests, "Ironhide is, quite literally, the mech of your dreams."

"Not another damn word, Firestar!" Chromia stuck a threatening digit in her faceplates, "I mean it!"

"Fine." Firestar smirked and began humming the tune to "Sittin' in a Tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G.", dancing away down the hall.

"Ugggh!" Chromia seethed, "I'm gonna kill that femme!"

"Why?" Ironhide spoke, suddenly behind her, and she jumped, startled.

"Will you quit sneaking up on me like that?!" She smacked him on the chassis, "Nearly gave me a spark attack."

"Scaredy cat." Ironhide folded his arms over his chassis (Chromia was suprised he could do this considering how massive it was), "What'd Firestar say?"

"Nothing." Chromia said hastily

"Nothing?"

"Absolutely fragging nothing, Ironhide!" Chromia snapped, "Got it?"

Ironhide stared after the blue and silver femme as she pushed past him and strode quickly down the hall. _That femme is hiding something,_ Ironhide thought to himself and then grinned, _And I'm gonna find out what it is._


	8. Chapter 8

Jazz went to Prowl's office the next day as Chromia had suggested. He was absolutely exhausted after spending the night caught in a vicious cycle of worrying that Prowl was done with him, to reassuring himself that Prowl could never be done with him, to wondering what Prowl's cryptic, "You'll see how cold I can be!" comment meant, starting the cycle all over again.

He knocked on the door and heard Prowl's stiff voice call, "Enter."

Jazz popped his helm in, quickly admiring how Prowl's doorwings were raised in a crisp "V", "Hey Prowl, ya got a sec? I just wanted to, ah, apologize for what I said yesterday…." There was a silence and Jazz plowed ahead, "What I mean tah say is, I shouldnta pushed ya like that. Ya aren't ready, but it's okay because I can wait as long as I have to. For you." Jazz smiled at the tactician bot, who wasn't looking at him, but was sorting through datapads, his faceplates stoic and emotionless, "Prowler?"

When he didn't respond, Jazz realized he was being ignored and laughed nervously, "Is this part of yer whole 'cold' thing? 'Cuz that was just another dumb thing I did yesterday, sayin' that. It ain't true, ya know." He tried to reach for Prowl's servo, but the white and red bot tactfully moved them to his keyboard, pretending to be typing something.

Jazz swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling tears begin to sting his optics again. _Not now!,_ He mentally screamed, _We are_ _not_ _going to cry in front of Prowl!_ Out loud he said unhappily, "I don' know how long ya plan to ignore me Prowler, but I just want ya to know I'm really really sorry for bein' sucha idiot, and….when yer not mad at me anymore, ya know where I am usually."

As he turned around and went dejectedly out the door, that evil little voice in his helm said, _'When he's not mad at us anymore'? I think we mean if. What if Prowl ignores us forever and ever?_

Jazz didn't even have the spark to tell it to shut up.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Jazz couldn't take it anymore.

Prowl had been completely ignoring him for an entire week now. Every time Jazz went to talk to him, his office door was locked, as well as the door to his quarters. The mech was even sending Red Alert to debrief Jazz on his missions, just to avoid talking to him or even seeing him.

Finally, Jazz waited in the ceiling beams in front of Prowl's office until Prowl left the room to go get some energon, swooped down, carefully placed a tiny present and a note on Prowl's desk, and raced back out, done in about 30 seconds. Then he slumped glumly over to the training room to watch Ironhide and Chromia train the younger bots.

The two, thankfully, hadn't told anyone else about the fight, and let him pretty much just sit and watch them train, but others were beginning to notice Jazz's dimmed demeanor. Even Optimus had stopped by, concerned, and asked him what was wrong, why he wasn't his usual cheerful self.

Jazz had responded to the Prime's questions with patient responses such as, "Yes, I'm fine." or "No, Optimus, I'm not depressed er anythin' like that." and "I dunno. He's busy, I guess."

Jazz was, of course, not fine. He was used to waking up with Prowl in his arms half the time, and waking up some mornings expecting that, and then realizing that Prowl wasn't there just made the ache of missing him even more unbearable. He missed holding the tactician bot's servo, and kissing him, and seeing his faceplates light up in that happy grin that he only ever smiled Jazz's way.

He was sitting in the training room, wondering for about the thousandth time that day if this was the end, if his relationship with Prowl was truly over, when Magnia came in holding Ravenblade.

"Hey Jazz." She greeted just as Ravenblade burst out an excited, "Jazzy!" and immediately began struggling out of her mother's arms.

Magnia set the squirming sparkling down and she took off like a bolt of lightning, practically tackling Jazz into a hug.

"Erggh." Jazz grunted, nearly toppling over from Ravenblade's weight, smiling a little, "Hey Ravey."

"I was coming to ask if you would be willing to watch her for a while?" Magnia asked over Ravenblade's two year old blabbering, "I wanted to, um, talk to Bumblebee alone for a little bit. Plus I thought she might cheer you up."

"Sure thing, Magnia." Jazz smiled wanly

Magnia kissed Ravenblade and told her to be good before leaving the still babbling sparkling in Jazz's lap.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Prowl returned to his office, two energon cubes in his servos, kicked the door shut behind him, and froze.

"Somethings...different." He muttered to himself, casting his optics around the room until he spied a small package on his desk.

He set the energon cubes down and picked up the attachee note, which simply said, "I'm so sorry" in Jazz's handwriting. Prowl could barely read it, the saboteur's handwriting was always so terrible, which made him smile a little before he remembered he was supposed to be mad at him.

Sighing, Prowl opened the package and stared at the contents, before picking them up gingerly. It was a packet of the energon candies he used to enjoy when he was a sparkling, before Cybertron had been destroyed. _Where did he even get these?_ , Prowl thought, a little touched, _There hasn't been any working factories on Cybertron for centuries._

Conflicted, Prowl slid the energon candies into his subspace and slipped out of his office, heading towards the training room.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ravenblade was still talking a mile a minute while Jazz bounced her up and down on his knee, lost in thought. She had just begun talking a month ago, so now it was just the constant outpour of things she had never gotten to say when she was a baby.

Ravenblade, however, was a very perceptive sparkling, and eventually she noticed that Jazz had barely said a word since she got there.

"Jazzy?" She asked, just as Prowl stopped at the door of the training room, able to see Jazz and Ravenblade while they couldn't see him, "Jazzy, why you so sad?"

"Sad?" Jazz smiled a little, trying to convince the sparkling he was fine, "I'm not sad, Ravey. I'm alright."

Ravenblade was silent for a moment, understanding that what he said wasn't true. Instead she asked, "Where's Prowlie?", figuring that talking about the bot that made her Jazzy so happy would cheer him up.

Jazz's helm drooped tiredly, and Ravenblade put her tiny servos on his cheeks worriedly as if she could hold his helm up, as he said, "Prowlie...is very mad at me."

Ravenblade stared at him sadly for a minute before flinging her little arms around his neck, "It'll be okay Jazzy."

"Oh." Jazz choked, the tears threatening to spill again, patting her on the back, "Thanks Ravey. Thank you." He set her on the floor and stood unsteadily, calling to Chromia through the burning in his throat, "Can you watch her for a minute?"

Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked towards the door, the tears finally cascading down his faceplates, flowing right past his visor as soon as he had his back to them. He hurried out the door, pushing past Prowl, not even realizing who it was, and fled to his quarters.

Prowl heard Ravenblade ask Chromia in her wobbly baby voice, " 'Mia? What's wrong with Jazzy?"

"Nothing babycakes." Chromia sighed, "He just misses Prowl. A lot."

Prowl tipped his helm back against the wall, closing his optics as a wave of guilt washed over him. _Maybe I took this too far,_ He thought, _Jazz doesn't deserve this._

 _Doesn't he though?,_ Prowl's inner devil voiced its opinion _, Remember what he called you? He called you cold, acted like you were emotionless!_

 _He apologized for it though,_ Prowl argued with himself

 _But he didn't apologize for accusing you of using him, did he?_

 _No, but...,_ Prowl stopped, realizing how dumb this was; he'd already made up his mind to at least talk to Jazz and try to work things out with him. He could voice all of his hurt feelings to Jazz, not himself.

Heaving a sigh, he pushed himself off the wall and headed towards Jazz's quarters.


	9. Chapter 9

When Prowl got to Jazz's quarters, he tried the door, realizing it was locked with a frown. He typed in the security passcode and let himself in quietly. He almost didn't see Jazz hunched over on the floor in the corner of the room, arms wrapped around his knees, faceplates buried in his arms, shoulders shaking silently.

He stared for almost a full minute, his processor uncomprehending. _Jazz can't be crying….he's Jazz! Jazz doesn't….Jazz can't….Oh, Primus what have I done?_

Out loud he whispered, awestruck, "Jazz?"

The saboteur raised his helm slowly and said in a hoarse voice, "Prowl? What're you….why ya in my room?" He swiped at his optics beneath his visor quickly, hoping Prowl wouldn't notice, but nothing ever got past that bot.

"Jazz." He sunk down on his knees next to him, reaching out to hug him as Jazz nearly fell into the embrace, "Primus, I didn't- I'm so sorry, my Jazz. I took this too far."

Jazz practically choked with happiness when Prowl called him 'my Jazz', almost bursting into tears again, "No, Prowler...it's my fault for startin' that whole thing. I shouldnta pushed ya so much if I knew ya wasn't ready."

"Thank you for apologizing." Prowl hugged him closer, "And for the energon candies. And for being an amazing boyfriend." He sighed a small breath against Jazz's cheek, "I'm so sorry I upset you so much. I didn't think- I mean you're always so cheerful. I didn't think you could get so down."

"It's the only downfall tah bein' so upbeat and happy all the time." Jazz sniffled and snuggled into Prowl's shoulder, "When I crash, I crash hard."

Prowl smiled, "But then I get to take care of you when you crash." They were both silent for a moment, and Prowl pulled the packet of energon candis out of his subspace, absent-mindedly offering Jazz one.

They both popped them in their mouths at the same time, and began chewing slowly, making pained faces until they caught optic-contact. "Sour" They choked out and then started laughing hysterically

"Primus, Prowler." Jazz gasped, practically restored to his normal self, "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too Jazz." Prowl laughed

"Can I ask you somethin'?" Jazz said once they had calmed down

"Depends what it is." Prowl said warily

"It's not tah ask if ya love me, 'cuz I'm almost sure ya do...maybe." Jazz sighed, "But if ya do….why doncha wanna tell me? Ya don't gotta answer if ya don't wanna, by the way. It's just somethin' I've been wonderin'."

Prowl leaned his helm back, "Jazz, what do you think would happen if I told you I loved you?"

Jazz raised an optic ridge, "I'd be so excited I'd pee myself?"

Prowl cracked a smile, "I meant eventually. What would happen eventually?"

Jazz was silent for a moment and then, "I would want to bond with you."

"Exactly." Prowl snapped his digits, "You would say to me, 'Prowler, why can't we bond, if ya love me, an' ah love ya?'."

"I do not sound like that." Jazz stuck his glossa out at him

"Psssh." Prowl grinned, getting to his peds and helping Jazz up, "You sound exactly like that."

"So why would it be bad if we bonded?"

"It's because…" Prowl sighed and said quietly, "It's because I want you to always be happy, Jazz. I want you to always be your sparkly, upbeat self. And if anything...if anything happens to me, I want you to be able to move on. You wouldn't be able to move on if I offlined and we were bonded; you'd be devastated. Forever."

There was a silence and then Jazz said roughly, "Prowl, do you honestly think for even one damn second that if ya offlined, right now, today, that I wouldn't be devastated? Forever?"

Jazz closed his optics when Prowl gave him a confused stare, "Primus, ya really do think that. Okay, let's do a little 'what if?' imaginin'. Let's say ya died today. For the first, I dunno, year or two, I'd be a complete wreck. I'm talkin' lockin' myself in my room, not eatin', not rechargin', bawlin' my optics out like a sparkling, the works."

Seeing Prowl's horrified expression, he added, "No self-offline attempts yet though, 'cuz I'd know you'd be mad at me fer that. Then maybe year three I'd learn how to pretend to have a normal life. I'd go about my routines, do my work, eat and recharge. But I'd be dead inside. There'd be no more happy Jazz high fivin' bots in the hallways. I wouldn't be out on the dancefloor, swayin' my hips tah my favorite song. I would be-man I dunno what I would be, a zombie I guess. Anyways,k this could go on fer years, this zombie-Jazz, until eventually I just wouldn't be able to take it anymore, bein' without ya. So I'd offline myself or have somebot do it for me."

"So." He crossed his arms, "That is my sad, sad life without you in it. No pressure."

Prowl simply stared at him, blinking his optics a few times. Finally, he said something that completely surprised the scrap out of Jazz. He placed a servo over the saboteur's spark and gazed up at him, "Bond with me."

"What?" Jazz whispered, awed, "Prowl, ya don't gotta-"

"Just let me explain." Prowl sighed, leaning his helm against the saboteur's chassis, "You keep apologizing for pushing me to tell you I love you, that you felt bad because you thought I wasn't ready." Prowl rubbed his thumb digit across Jazz's cheek, smiling softly, "I'm so sorry if I misled you, but I have always been ready. Pretty much since we started dating, I've wanted to tell you how much I love you. Everyday, every time I see you I've wanted to say it so bad."

"Really?" Jazz squeaked happily, "Me too! How did ya...keep it inside?"

"You know me." Prowl said wearily, "I'm good at hiding my emotions." There was a silence and then Prowl exhaled, "Jazz?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you." Prowl said firmly, watching Jazz's face melt with happiness

"Dammit Prowler." Jazz laughed, swiping at the tears of happiness leaking from his optics, "Yer makin' me have such an emotional day. Naw, scratch that, an emotional week!"

Prowl laughed and his shoulders relaxed, "Uggh it feels so good to finally say it. I just want to say it over and over again. I love you, Jazz. I love you, I love you, I love you, I-"

Jazz interrupted him with a fervent kiss, pressing him up against the wall. "I love you too Prowl." He gasped between kisses, "I love you so much."

"Jazz." Prowl moaned into his mouth. He propelled the saboteur backwards to his berth and slid on top of him, fingering the seams in his armour.

"Prow-wl!" Jazz arched underneath him when the tactician's careful digits hit a sensitive node, "Primus, ya really know how tah get me worked up, doncha mech?"

Prowl hmmd, "Too bad we're not interfacing tonight."

"...We're not?"

He grinned a little, "We have more important things to do."

Jazz was silent for a moment, "Prowl, I didn't mean tah guilt ya into anything with that whole spiel. This don't have tah happen right now, if ya don't want it to."

Prowl closed his optics, leaning his forehelm against Jazz's, "Primus, Jazz you have no idea how much I want to. How much I have wanted to, for a long time now. But I didn't let myself be selfish because I didn't want you to be destroyed if anything happened to me. But if you would be that devastated if I offlined, regardless of whether we're bonded, " He sighed and opened his optics, the teal staring into Jazz's cobalt blue, "Then it seems the only thing to do is to bond with you and make both of us deliriously happy. And try to avoid offlining."

Jazz smiled happily, "Ya really wanna bond with me, Prowler?"

"There is no one in the entire universe I would rather bond with than you Jazz." Prowl kissed him softly, cupping Jazz's faceplates in his servos.

As the kiss became more passionate, Jazz slid his servo down Prowl's chassis to the outer plating of his spark chamber. "Open?" He keened and Prowl complied, his intakes hitching as Jazz's servo slid into his spark chamber and began caressing his spark.

"Ohhhhhh Jazz" He sighed, tilting his helm back; Jazz's servos were so careful to trace every part of his spark, a feeling both relaxing and pleasurable.

"Prowler?" Jazz questioned and Prowl opened his optics to find the saboteur with his spark chamber open, blushing vividly, "Ya wanna um-" 

Prowl interrupted him by grabbing his collar plate and yanking him to him in a rough kiss, their chassis' crashing together. Their sparks began to hum in unison as they rubbed together, starting to merge as the two mechs cried out.

"Ja-Jazz!" Prowl almost screamed as a huge wave of pleasure washed over them as their sparks became one, realizing that Jazz was also moaning his name beneath him as he bucked under the final overload.

With their sparks merged, Prowl slumped onto the berth next to Jazz, panting. He cast a glance at the mech next to him, beautiful in his pleasured daze and thought lovingly, _My Jazz. What did I ever do to deserve a mech like you?_

He was drifting into recharge when the last thing he heard was Jazz's voice in his processor saying, _"Ya didn't have tah do nothin' Prowler. I'm just lucky tah have ya love me as much as I love you."_


	10. Chapter 10

A loud knocking startled Jazz out of his recharge, followed by Chromia's muffled voice, "Jazz? You okay in there?"

"Yeah, hold on femme!" He called, glancing at his internal clock which read 11pm and at the mech beside him, snoring softly. _My bonded_ , Jazz thought, a shiver of thrill and excitement running through him.

He got out of the berth, stretching and skipped over to the door, practically flinging it open. Chromia was standing there balancing a very sleepy looking Ravenblade on her hip.

"Hey 'Mia!" Jazz said happily

She just stared at him, "Jazz! You're...back!"

"Oh yeah baby!" Jazz pumped his fists, "Jazz is back in town!"

Chromia sighed, relieved, "Good. Devastated you is kinda scary, no offense. What happened?"

"Prowler spent the night and…"

"And you guys um, hang on." She covered Ravenblade's audio receptors quickly and said, "Interfaced?"

Jazz grinned wide, "Nope. Even better."

She just stared at him, "What's better than interfacing? You...made up?"

"No." Jazz rocked on his heels, practically giddy.

"Ummmm…." Chromia trailed off, and her optics got huge, "Jazz...are you guys…?"

"Yup!" Jazz spun around on his heel, "I am a bonded mech!"

"No!" Chromia gasped, delighted. She set Ravenblade down carefully on Jazz's rug and took his outstretched servo and they began crazy dancing. It wasn't really dancing, more like excitedly hopping around and whooping (the whooping was mostly Jazz).

"Jazz darling." Prowl groaned from the berth, "Could you not? My helm is already aching from all the excitement you're pounding into my processor." He rolled over, not realizing he was at the edge of the berth, and fell right off onto the ground, "Oof!"

"Pro-Prowler." Jazz laughed, helping him up, "Are you okay?"

Prowl scrubbed his faceplates, "Uggh I am so not a morning bot."

"Prowler...it ain't even morning yet."

"Nooooooo." Prowl groaned, collapsing back on the berth and burrowing into the blankets, "Leave, you evil morning bots!"

"Hey!" Jazz protested, "This is my room! And I ain't a morning bot either."

"Oh, please." Prowl humphed, but Jazz could tell from his voice that he was smiling a little, "You are an every time bot."

Jazz chuckled and turned to Chromia, "Thanks for watchin' Ravey. Sorry I just kinda left her with ya, I-"

"It's fine, Jazz." Chromia interrupted him, smiling, "I'm just glad you're you again." They said goodbye and Chromia left. Jazz started making a small bed out of sheets for a tired Ravenblade curled up on the floor.

She finally spoke, "Jazzy happy now?"

"Yes." Jazz grinned, "Jazzy very, very happy."

"Prowlie not mad anymore?"

"Prowlie is not mad anymore." Prowl mumbled sleepily from inside Jazz's blankets

"Yay." Ravenblade yawned and sat up, stretching her arms out for a hug from Jazz, "Toldja it be okay."

"Smart sparkling." Jazz kissed her helm, "Night night Ravey." There was only a soft snore in reply, and Jazz smiled and crawled back into his berth next to Prowl.

" _You are so cute with her."_ Prowl smiled tiredly

" _She's a cutie pie."_ Jazz poked Prowl's side, _"Why? Ya want one of those?"_

" _Primus Jazz."_ The tactician bot groaned teasingly, _"We've been bonded, what, a few hours, and you already want sparklings?"_

" _I push too much sometimes."_ Jazz admitted _, "But that was how I first got ya to go out with me. Remember that?"_

" _How could I forget?"_ Prowl chuckled, _"You pestered me endlessly about going on a date."_

" _Yup."_ Jazz smiled, _"Pushed my way right into yer spark."_

" _No you didn't."_

" _...I didn't?"_

Prowl smiled, _"I already liked you before you asked me out."_

Jazz's grin practically brightened the whole room, _"But ya didn't answer my question Prowler."_

" _What?"_

" _Ya want one of those? Someday?"_

" _Someday."_ Prowl agreed, turning over and going back to recharge.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Bumblebee got back from working at the police station late that night, and entered the house he and Magnia had taken over on the fringe of Iacon. As he shut the door behind him, he wondered why it was so quiet; the femmes usually greeted him at the door.

A glance at his internal clock made him wince with realization; it was nearly 10 pm and they were probably both asleep. He hadn't realized it was so late; the stack of reports on Decepticon activity on his desk had gotten so high that he'd tried to get through as much of it as he could that night.

 _Primus, when did I become such a workaholic like Optimus?,_ he wondered to himself as he crept quietly into the kitchen for a cube of energon.

"Ahem." Someone coughed behind him, and he turned, a cube of energon raised to his lip components to find Magnia sitting at their kitchen table.

"Hey Mags." He said warmly, shutting the refrigerator and joining her at the table, "Is Ravey Gravey asleep? Sorry I'm home so late again, it's those damn-"

"Reports." Magnia said dryly, "I know. You've told me."

He hmmd, and then said, "Mags? Why are you sitting here in the dark?"

"I was waiting for you to get home." She said simply, "I left Ravenblade with Jazz for the night, so now we can talk."

"Talk?" Bee questioned, "Sure, whatcha wanna talk about?"

"How are things working out with your new apprentice, Strongarm?" Magnia asked

"Good, I guess." He shrugged, "She's settled into the position now, and Sideswipe is running out of ways to annoy her. That one is a really stickler for rules though. She even tries to tell me if I'm not following the rules to a T."

"And she was helping you at the office tonight?"

"Nope." Bee shook his helm, "All of the young bots have a curfew of 8pm, although I doubt Sideswipe actually goes home when I send him and Strongarm out at 8. Why?"

"You know she has a crush on you, right?"

"Wait, she does?" Bumblebee sat back in his chair, astounded, "Primus, I thought she just looked up to me or something. How do you know?"

"Firestar told me." Magnia sighed, "Look, I'm just gonna say it, alright? You come home late about four times a week, and every time you're completely exhausted. And this has been happening since Strongarm, who just happens to have a crush on you, got here. So I just have to ask...is anything happening between you two? Please just tell me if there is, I-" Magnia took a deep breath, tears catching the corner of her optics, "I want you to let me know so I can move on with my life."

Bumblebee sat, absolutely stunned, with a look of complete horror on his faceplates, unable to believe what he was hearing. Finally he managed to choke out, "So you can move on with your life? What in Pit-Magnia, what are you talking about? I don't-"

"We never spend any time together anymore, Bee." Magnia whispered, "This is the first time we've talked in over a month other than quick hellos and goodbyes. I feel like I'm losing you."

"Magnia." He took her servos in his, "I'm so sorry I haven't been here; you're right, I spend too much time at work and not with you. But do you-" He swallowed, "Do you really think I would do something like that to you? To Ravenblade?"

"I don't know." Magnia sighed

"You know what the best part of my day is?" Bee said suddenly, leaning towards her, "It's coming home, because every day I come through that door and Ravenblade runs into my arms yelling, 'Daddy's home!' and gives me a hug. And then you come over and ask me how my day was and give me the sweetest kiss. And every day-" He stopped, wiping a few tears from his optics, "Every day I'm reminded how lucky I am to have you two as my family, that you love me so much and I love you guys. How could you-" He choked, "Magnia, how could you think I would destroy what I have with you two, for another femme? There is no femme that I could ever love more than you, ever, and you know that. Remember how much I had to fight for you?" He swiped at his optics again and looked at her with his tearstained baby blue optics, "I would do it all again; I would fight to keep you every day if I had to."

Magnia buried her faceplates in her servos, "Agggh, you're making me feel so damn guilty with those puppy optics...I need to go think." She stood up from the table and fled to the berthroom, leaving Bee at the table.

He sat there numbly for a good five minutes, still unable to believe this was happening, waiting for Magnia to come back.

Finally he stood up and stumbled into the living room, laying down on the couch. Magnia's voice kept sounding in his helm, replaying when she had said, "So I can move on with my life." over and over and over.

' _So I can move on with my life?'_ Bee questioned, _What does that even mean?_

A chill shot through his core as he realized the answer, _Does Magnia want to leave me?_ The thought terrified him so completely that he lay there petrified for a moment, until he heard pedsteps running towards him.

Magnia launched herself over the couch, landing on top of him, tears streaming down her faceplates. _"No! No, no, no, no, Bee!"_ She yelled through their bond, having heard his thought in the berthroom, _"No. I would never, ever even_ _think_ _about leaving you! I don't know why I said that, it was such a dumb thing to say. I'm so sorry about this entire night. I_ _know_ _you wouldn't do that to me, it's just my stupid insecurities and Firestar mentioned Strongarm's crush on you, and I think my processor just kind of spiraled out of control. I'm so, so sorry I did that to you."_

" _Hey."_ He cupped her faceplates in his servos, forcing her to look into his optics, _"I love you. You know that, right?"_

She smiled, a few tears escaping her violet optics, _"You only tell me about twenty times a day. I love you too, Bumble."_

" _How could you have doubted me?"_ He brushed his thumb digit over her lips, _"Look how beautiful you are. No femme could ever compete with you in my spark, Magnia. I'm yours, completely, forever."_

She hugged his neck, pulling him closer to her, _"I will never doubt you again, my spark. I will always be yours too."_


	11. Chapter 11

Magnia returned to Jazz's quarters the next morning to retrieve Ravenblade, her processor still reminiscing on her night with Bumblebee. _He's such a good mech,_ she thought fondly, _although maybe too gentle at times._

" _Are you still going on about that?"_ Bee teased in her processor, " _I'm sorry I wasn't as rough as you wanted me to be, but you know I don't like hurting you."_

" _That's the point of cop-prisoner role playing!"_ She complained _, "You're supposed to be punishing me; ever heard of 'pain is pleasure' ?"_

" _Fine."_ Bee groaned _, "Tomorrow, if we're not completely exhausted."_

" _Sounds good to me, you sexy cop you."_ Magnia taunted and he laughed

" _I'll talk to you later gorgeous."_

" _Bye Bee."_ She felt him withdraw from her processor as she knocked on Jazz's door.

The saboteur answered the door quickly, an excited Ravenblade clinging to his neck and climbing over his helm, giggling.

"Hullo, Magnia!" He said cheerfully, "Don't mind the sparkling climbing all over me, she's been like this since the sun came up." He reached up and plucked her off of his shoulder, tickling her tummy and making her squeal.

"I'm sorry if she kept you up at all." Magnia said worriedly

"Naw" He waved her off, "She only bugged Prowler a bit, but he gets bugged by just about everythin'"

"Prowl's here?" She pushed open the door, revealing the tactician curled up in Jazz's sheets, "You two didn't-"

"No!" Jazz said quickly, "No, no, no, no, no, we didn't-I mean we did, but Ravenblade wasn't here."

"She wasn't here." Magnia repeated, trying not to lose her temper, "And where was my sparkling, if you were supposed to be watching her, Jazz?"

"It's not-" Jazz sighed, "Primus this looks terrible. When ya left, Ravenblade kept askin' me why I was so sad and where Prowl was, and then when I told her, she gave me a hug. At that point I just couldn't take it anymore, so I asked Chromia to watch her and I ran tah my room so no one would see what a mess I was. And then Prowl found me here, and we made up and bonded and Chromia brought Ravenblade by later when Prowl was asleep." He glanced at Magnia and added nervously, "We didn't scarr yer sparkling for life, I swear!"

Chromia walked by just then and Jazz sighed, relieved, " 'Mia'll tell ya. You watched Ravenblade last night fer me didntcha?"

"Yeah, why?" Chromia glanced between Magnia and Jazz.

"Nothin'." Jazz clapped her on the shoulder as she walked past him

As she walked away she could hear Magnia say doubtfully, "Well I guess as long as you didn't…."

Chromia kept walking, trying to get to the mess hall before it was swarmed with bots. She paused at a corner and then leapt around it, taking the bot that was pressed against wall down in a flash of blue and red.

"Whoa there Captain!" Firestar laughed beneath her, "It's just a prank, see?". She held up a tiny can labeled 'Silly String'

"Where did you get this?" Chromia asked, helping the red and orange femme up.

"I got it from Earth." Sunstreaker popped his helm around the corner behind Chromia, "Star's just helping me out with my daily pranks while Sides is at his 'job' doing Bumblebee's bidding. You can never have too many pranks!"

And with that he pulled a bottle of energon out of his subspace, squirted Chromia with it, and then sped off, shouting to Firestar, "Seeya later Star!"

"Auggh!" Chromia growled, wiping the energon off her faceplates, "Firestar, since when did you start hanging out with Thing Two?"

"Since you and Strongarm got jobs that take up all of your time." Firestar shrugged, "We don't have that many missions, so I'm bored like allllllll the time. And Sunny's not bad company. Plus," She added, a mischievous smile creeping to her faceplates, "This pranking stuff is kinda fun!"

Chromia shook her helm and kept walking with the femme towards the mess hall. As they waited in line for their energon they were joined by Strongarm, who was on lunch break.

"I heard…." Firestar started, "Oh, wait I already told you guys that. Well, Blaster's….dammit I told you that too. I'm running out of gossip!"

"I've got some, actually." Chromia said, surprised

"What is it?" Both femmes turned to her eagerly

Chromia said worriedly, "Firestar, promise you won't spread this around, alright?"

"I'll try my hardest." She saluted jauntily

"Okay, well…" Chromia sighed, "Jazz and Prowl are bonded."

"Shut up!" Firestar gasped and Strongarm's optics bulged, "No way!"

"I know, isn't it great?" Chromia smiled as they finally sat down at a table

"Chromia, I'm not gonna spread that around." Firestar raised an optic ridge, "They're my friends. Plus they have a hard enough time with bots talking about them anyways."

"Yeah…." Strongarm drummed her digits on the table, "I wonder…"

"What?" The other two femmes asked

Strongarm blushed a little, "Who do you think is on top?"

"Oh, obviously Jazz." Firestar sipped her energon, "He strikes me as the dominant one."

"No way." Chromia crossed her arms, "I think it's Prowl."

"I'm with Star on this one." Strongarm added, "It's totally Jazz."

"I will bet you femmes five credits!" Chromia smacked her servo on the table

"Deal!" They said in unison

"What are we betting on?" Prowl said from behind them suddenly and they all jumped guiltily

"Nothing." Firestar said hastily and the other two stared down at their energon

"Nothing?" Prowl flattened his servos on the table next to them, "I don't think so. Chromia?"

Chromia exhaled, "We were betting on...which one of you is on top."

"Hah." Prowl chuckled and the femmes relaxed slightly, "And what are the bets?"

Chromia crossed her arms, "These two morons are betting on Jazz, and I'm betting on you."

Prowl remained silent for a moment, a faint smile on his faceplates. Finally he said, "I'm quite flattered you were rooting for me, Chromia."

"And?" The femmes leaned forward eagerly

Prowl smirked, "I hate to dissapoint, but you're all wrong. Jazz and I take turns."

"Ahhhh!" All of the femmes laughed and hooted as Prowl sat down at their table.

"Congratulations by the way." Chromia said to Prowl

"Thank you." Prowl sighed, "I-we are very, very happy."

They talked for a while and soon Chromia left to get another energon cube. Ironhide was sitting at a table close to the line with a bunch of mechs. As she got her energon she discretely adjusted her audio receptors so she could hear their conversation.

"Ain't that femme Firestar somethin' though?" Blaster whistled

"Yeah, she's pretty hot." Smokescreen agreed

"Ya know who I don't like though." Blaster lowered his voice and the other two leaned closer, "That femme Chromia. She's so...brash ya know? Like she tries to be all tough like a mech. I dunno, 'Hide what do you think?"

"Ah." Ironhide rubbed his neck uncomfortably, "I mean yeah she's kinda-she's a little stiff."

Chromia's shoulders slumped against her wishes; why should she care what Ironhide said about her? She trailed dejectedly out of the mess hall, unaware that a pair of steel blue optics followed her out as Ironhide realized she had heard what he said.

 _Dammit femme_ , He thought unhappily and excused himself to the other two mechs, hurrying after her.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

He found Chromia on the roof of one of the buildings a few miles away, her back leaning against a pillar, her chin resting on her knees. Her sapphire optics started at the skyline, unfocused, not quite sad or angry but just...untouchable.

 _Chromia_ , he almost said but instead he said, "Femme. What're ya doing up here?"

He fully expected her to blow up at him, to demand to know why he had said something so mean about her. He almost would have preferred it to her saying tonelessly, "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Absolutely fragging nothing Ironhide." Chromia said in a voice so hollow and distant that Ironhide almost reached out to touch her, before remembering she didn't like being touched.

"Hey, I'm sorry about what I said in the mess hall." He said unhappily

"Why?"

He frowned, "Why did I say it?"

"No. Why are you sorry?" Chromia continued staring at the sky, her optics dark, "Everything you and Blaster said was true. I'm brash and I'm rude, and I try to be tough and as a result no one likes me."

 _I like you!,_ Ironhide practically screamed in his processor, but of course he couldn't say that, "There are plenty of bots that like you."

"Hah." Chromia said sullenly, "Good one."

"No, really.". When there was no response he sighed, "Well regardless of whether it's true or not, I'm sorry because I hurt your feelings."

She finally turned and looked right at him with that piercing sapphire gaze, "Like you give a damn about my feelings, Ironhide. Like I give a damn what anybot thinks."

 _Except you,_ She wanted to say, _For some strange reason I give a damn what you think._ She instead settled for getting up and storming past him.

"Chromia, wait." He said, reaching out and catching her servo.

They both froze as Chromia thought, _He's holding my servo! Why the frag is he holding my servo? What is_ _happening_ _?,_ and Ironhide's processor was going, _Shitshitshitshit! Why did I do that?! Bad idea, let go! Let go servo!_

Unfortunately his form wasn't obeying him at the moment and they stood there frozen for almost a full minute, Chromia's optics wide. Finally Ironhide managed to stutter out, "Uhhhhhhh…."

Fortunately, a small Decepticon ship zoomed by and began firing on them before he could say something stupid and embarrassing.


	12. Chapter 12

"Run!" Chromia yelled, wrenching her servo from Ironhide's and sprinting across the rooftop, his heavy pedsteps thudding behind her.

The ship loomed behind them, sparks shooting off the metal rooftops as they dodged the ships's rounds.

One finally caught Ironhide on the back of his leg and he collapsed to the ground, cursing between clenched denta.

Chromia halted and looked back at him, optics wide and he shouted, "Don't just stand there like a moron! Run!"

"Like I'm leaving your aft behind." She muttered as she spun around, ran back to him and helped him up, half supporting half dragging him across the roof.

"Dammit femme!" He panted, closing his optics against the pain radiating from his leg, "Ya couldn't have just left me? Now we're both gonna get killed"

"'I'm not leaving you, 'Hide." Chromia said calmly, glancing about for some sort of escape, "We'll have to figure something else out."

There was a door on the roof, leading down to the rest of the building that they could crouch behind, and Chromia dropped Ironhide behind it.

"Frag." He groaned, clutching his leg as she scooted in next to him, "Could you have been any more gentle, ya think?"

Optics trained on the ship still firing at them, she said simply, "Gentle isn't really my style.". Then she did something completely unexpected; she : began firing back at the ship with her arm cannons.

"What are you doing?" He asked, astounded, "There's no way you can even damage the ship with those!"

"I don't need to damage it." She replied, one optic closed, "I just need to hit the pilot.". She squeezed off another shot, cracking a hole in the ship's windshield right where the pilot was seated.

Without a pilot at the controls, the ship lurched forward and plowed into the rooftop, crashing through a few stores of the building before reaching the ground floor in a fiery blaze.

"Ha. Got 'em." She turned back to Ironhide, her optics widening at the Decepticon holding the barrel of a gun to the back of his helm.

"I wouldn't move, sugar." A femme's voice drawled through the helmet, "Unless you want your pretty little Autobot boy toy to, ahem, lose his helm."

She was a slim, black and white flyer with pointed audio receptors that made her look a bit like a cat. Chromia analyzed quickly that she could probably take her if she injured her wings, but not without Ironhide getting shot in the helm.

Ironhide's optics pled with her to run, attack, do anything but give up. And even though it killed her, the fiesty femme sighed and retracted her arm cannons, "Fine. I surrender."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The Decepticon, who Chromia learned was named Hellcat through a long, one sided conversation the femme had tried to start with her, waited for the rest of her team to arrive with another ship before hauling them off.

The only time Chromia had spoken was when Hellcat had saucily run a digit from behind Ironhide's audio receptor to the base of his neck, making him shudder with disgust, and remarked "Quite a looker this one. You sure you wouldn't like to defect to our side? I'm sure I could find something for you to do."

Before he could respond Chromia had growled, "Touch him again and you lose a servo."

"Why?" Hellcat had laughed, the barrell of her gun never leaving Ironhide's helm, "You already got dibs?"

Chromia hadn't responded to Hellcat, or to Ironhide's questioning gaze, and Hellcat had let Ironhide be until her team arrived, dragging him aboard the ship.

Another Decepticon, this one scrawny and tan colored, struggled to drag Chromia onto the ship until eventually she got tired of it and shoved him off, walking into the ship herself.

Hellcat chained the both of them to the seats in the ship, guarded by a few Vehicons, and then took over the controls, yelling back, "Thistleant! Close up that fraggin' Autobot's leg. He's getting energon all over my ship!"

"You-you c-can't t-tell me what t-to do." The tan mech, who Chromia asumed was Thistleant stuttered, "I only t-take orders from St-Starscream!"

"Oh, I didn't realize." Hellcat said with fake sweetness, "In that case, why don't I just throw you off of my ship and tell Starscream that unfortunately you offlined during the Autobots' attack. It was just horrible to watch you offline!".She faked snivled and then sneered at the trembling grounder in her mirror, "Fix it you pathetic medic. I won't ask again."

Chromia almost felt something like pity for the small Decepticon, whose entire frame shook except his servos which were steady on Ironhide's leg, as a medic's should be. That is until he transformed one of his servos into a blowtorch.

"Whoa!" Ironhide yelled, scooting as far away from Thistleant as he could, "What in Pit is that for?!"

"C-cautersizing the wound." Thistleant said patiently, "F-fastest way to stop the bleeding."

"No way." Ironhide shook his helm vehemently

Thistleant raised an optic ridge, "Y-you're not in a p-position to object. I've g-got you chained to a wall. I w-would suggest you be a g-good boy and let me d-do my work so you d-don't bleed to death."

The sudden sarcasm in the tiny medic's voice made Ironhide narrow his optics, but he scooted back over complacently, "Yer not even gonna remove the bullet? Worst medic ever."

He ignored him and began burning his leg as Ironhide gritted his denta and fought back the scream of pain clawing at his throat.

Chromia gave him a concerned glance, "Want me to knock you out?"

"Naw." He puffed, clenching his servos, "It doesn't hurt-arggh-that much."

She studied him for a minute, "Liar.". His optics snapped up to her as she reached behind him and smacked the back of his helm with her cannon, effectively knocking him unconscious.

Thistleant gave her a funny look, one that was clearly questioning her knocking out her own teammate, and she bared her denta at him, "What are you looking at, Decepticreep?"

The medic just shook his helm and continued welding until the gash the bullet had torn through Ironhide's leg was sealed. His work finished, he sat back in his seat and waited for the ride to be over.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Chromia had never seen Darkmount, had only heard about the monstrous tower and the horrors that went on inside. Passing into the tower's cold embrace with Hellcat's gun at the base of her neck and Thistleant and a Vehicon behind them struggling to carry the unconscious Ironhide, Chromia wished she could go back to never having seen it.

"Home sweet home." Hellcat said sarcastically, and motioned to a round of Decepticon troops on patrol, "Hey, you! Take the femme up to this dweeb's lab and take the mech down to the holding cells."

"W-where are you g-going?" Thistleant called after her as she began to walk away.

She grinned a cat-like grin and said, "To tell Screamy of my success of course."

Thistleant sighed and began walking away, motioning to the troop to follow him with Chromia. She craned her neck to look at Ironhide, who was being dragged in the opposite direction by two more troops, until the other troop shoved his blaster at her and told her to get moving.

She didn't want to be sepparated from the silver mech, fearing that he would be tortured or killed, but she had no choice.

Reluctantly, she followed Thistleant to his laboratory, praying for Ironhide's safety and her own.


	13. Chapter 13

The Decepticon troop accompanied Chromia and Thistleant to the medic's lab, chained Chromia to an operating table, and then left.

Thistleant coughed nervously, shuffled a few datapads around, and then retreated to his office, leaving Chromia to her paranoid thoughts.

She struggled uselessly against the bonds, her thoughts consumed with worry about Ironhide. Were they hurting him? Torturing him? Killing him? Was he already offline?

She was terrified that she would never see him again.

So when Starscream waltzed into the lab nearly an hour later, Chromia was struggling like a possessed femme to get out of the chains.

"What in Pit-those are reinforced steel, femme." Starscream raised an optic ridge, "You're not going to break them with sheer will."

"Worth a shot." She grunted, "I hear you're the half-assed excuse as a replacement for Megatron?"

Starscream's faceplates were livid and he shoved an arm cannon at her neck as Thistleant cried, "D-don't! She's a p-perfect specimen!"

"Specimen?" Starscream sneered, "What the frag is this femme good for, besides maybe recycling?"

"Weapon R!" Thistleant said excitedly, "I d-did few scans of her sp-spark and it seems like strong enough to p-power it."

"Excuse me?" Chromia said impatiently, "What exactly are you planning to exploit my spark for?"

"Explain."Starscream waved a servo at Thistleant, "I don't feel like it."

"Weapon R is a high p-powered weapon that I created to destroy the Autobots." Thistleant said proudly, "It's absolutely fl-flawless, except it n-needs the charge of someone's spark to power it. That's where you c-come in."

"Are you out of your processor?" She stared at him,"Why the scrap do you think I would agree to this? Unless..." Her shoulders slumped, "You're taking it by force."

"I c-can't actually t-take it by force because to do that I w-would have to pry your spark chamber open which would d-damage your spark." Thistleant sighed regretfully, "So we will n-need you willing, which m-means you have a bit of l-leverage."

Chromia's processor began to hum with possibilities. She could get herself and Ironhide out of here! Sure, it meant providing the Decepticons with a high powered weapon, but the Autobots could always destroy it later.

"Anything I want?" Chromia demanded

"Anything you fragging want." Starscream snapped, "Make it quick. I have better things to be doing."

"I want myself and the mech I came here with, Ironhide, released immediately after this spark-powering process." Chromia said firmly, "Unharmed, with one working comm link provided."

"I w-would hate to t-tell you this." Thistleant said, and it seemed genuine, "B-but it is unlikely you will m-make it out of this online, and unharmed is c-completely impossible."

Chromia simply stared at him, numb with shock for a moment. Then once she got her mouth working she said dazedly, "My conditions are the same. Ironhide and I both leave here, whether I am online or not. He is unharmed and a working comm link is provided."

"You have my word." Starscream said casually

"Your word is worth a fragging grain of salt to me Starscream!"Chromia spat at him and fixed her optics on Thistleant, "I want his word."

Thistleant looked properly terrified, "M-mine? Whatever f-for?"

"Because." Chromia said quietly, "You'll keep it."

Thistleant nodded hesitantly and looked at Chromia, "You have my word."

"Well enough of this mushy-gushy scrap." Starscream stalked out the door, "Thistleant, prepare Weapon R."

"Where are you going?" Chromia asked

Starscream smirked, "To go get your boyfriend so he can watch you die. Tell me, what does he look like? We have a lot of Autobot prisoners."

"You do?" Chromia stared at him

"Of course." He sneered, "Where do you think all of the rest of the Autobots are? The others that never made it to your base?"

Chromia felt a sick sense of dread and an overwhelming desire to see Ironhide, to ensure he was alright and these monsters hadn't harmed him.

"He's silver...and uh, blue optics..." Chromia said hesitantly

"As if that doesn't describe every fragging Autobot!" Starscream yelled, "Give me something useful or I'll come back with whatever Autobot I find!"

Chromia quickly tried to think of Ironhide's discerning characteristics. There weren't many except...

"A scar." Chromia said suddenly, "On his left jaw, right near his mouth."

"Oddly sp-specific." Thistleant commented after Starscream had left, "How d-do you know th-that?"

"Because." Chromia said unhappily, "I gave it to him."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Starscream dragged Ironhide up to Thistleant's lab nearly twenty minutes later, bloody, bruised, and chained but otherwise okay. Chromia breathed a sigh of relief.

"Femme." Starscream huffed, trying to catch his breath while chaining Ironhide to a nearby pole, "You have the heaviest Primusdamn boyfriend I have ever had the misfortune of carrying. You better make this worth my while."

"Make what worth your while Screamy?" Ironhide asked

"Call me that again, Autobot filth." Starscream smacked him across the faceplates, hard.

Ironhide just grinned and spat energon at Starscream's faceplates, and the seeker cursed, wiping it away and grabbing one of Thistleant's scalpels, "I'll destroy you Autobot!"

"No!" Chromia shouted, worming against the bonds, "Thistleant! You promised! Unharmed!"

"Starscream, stop." Thistleant demanded, voice steady for once

Starscream half turned, greedy optics still fixed on Ironhide, "And what are you going to do about it?"

"I will be forced to take you down." Thistleant said calmly, "I don't go back on my promises."

Starscream practically chortled at this, "You? Take me down? How on Cybertron do you propose to do that, doctor?"

"First." Thistleant said quietly, "I would snap your knee right at the back, the place you had me repair not two months ago. I bet it's still weakened just enough. Then, I would dislocate the shoulder you had surgery on a year ago, right after I slice open the cables connecting your wings that were damaged in your last battle with the Autobots. And finally, with you a mess of broken limbs on the floor, I would end your life."

Nearly everyone in the rooms mouths' had dropped open, including Starscream, who sputtered, "You-you wouldn't dare!"

Thistleant raised an optic ridge, "Never underestimate your own medic, Starscream."

He returned to preparing Weapon R, leaving everyone staring after him until Ironhide finally complained, "Will someone please tell me what the bloody Pit is going on?"

"Oh, you didn't hear?" Starscream sneered, dropping the metal scalpel back on the table, "Your girlfriend's gonna sacrifice herself to save you! Isn't that so romantic?" He rolled his optics and ducked out of the room

Ironhide looked up at her, horrified _,_ "Chromia. Tell me he's lying."

Chromia cringed, "Stop looking at me like that, would ya? And for the record!" She shouted after Starscream, "We're not dating!"

Thistleant patiently explained again what was happening and Ironhide remained silent for the duration of the explanation.

When Thistleant finished, Ironhide glared up at Chromia, "No."

" 'No'?" Chromia looked confused, "What do you mean 'no'?"

"You can't go through with this." Ironhide said firmly, "I won't allow it."

Chromia looked astounded, "You won't allow it? Screw you, I can do whatever the hell I feel like! And in case you haven't noticed, you can't stop me anyways; we're both chained up."

"Chromia." Ironhide said desperately, "Please. You're not strong enough. I can-"

"No you can't, 'Hide." Chromia sighed, "Look at you; you're bleeding all over the Primusdamn floor. Normally, I would never ever admit this, but" She seemed to sag a little, "You are usually stronger than me, however much it kills me to say it."

"Please don't-" Ironhide closed his optics, "Yer talkin' like yer already offline, Chro-mo."

Chromia's spark skipped a beat at the nickname, but she ignored it and continued, "At the moment, however, I am stronger than you, and I am therefore more likely to make it out of this online."

"If you think" Ironhide choked, "That you can use logic to convince me to let ya die, you are dead wrong."

Chromia smiled sadly, "True. You're not a very logical person."

Thistleant had begun hooking her up to the weapon and Ironhide, realizing that she was going to offline soon, said desperately, "Chromia! Don't do this to me, please!" He had so much left to tell her but there wasn't enough time.

"As if you give a damn about me Ironhide." She said softly, and looking at her faceplates he realized that when she said that she was really trying to ask him if he cared about her.

"Chromia." He practically sobbed her name, "You have no idea how much I give a damn about you."

And with that, Thistleant began to power up Weapon R.


	14. Chapter 14

The worst part wasn't being absolutely powerless to stop it as she screamed in agony, a sound that tore his spark to pieces as he watched his femme die.

No, the worst part was when she stopped screaming. Because as spark-wrenching and awful as that sound was, it meant that she was still alive. So when she stopped screaming, Ironhide's spark plummeted and his optics filled with the fear that she was gone.

Once Thistleant shut down Weapon R, everything was a blur for Ironhide. He vaguely remembered being unchained, handed a comm link, and shoved through a groundbridge by Thistleant, the mech who had murdered Chromia. He whispered, "I'm so sorry" as he pushed him through, but it didn't make a difference to the numb Ironhide.

And then he was standing in one of Cybertron's vast deserts, still feeling like this was all some horrible nightmare and he was going to wake up any minute.

The nightmare became real when he saw her limp frame a few feet to his left, her sapphire optics offlined.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and began walking towards her, willing himself to not cry the entire way. When he reached her he sank to his knees in the sand beside her and brushed a servo over her faceplates.

"Chromia?" He said weakly, "C'mon, get up. We gotta get back to base so you can beat my aft at training."

"Chromia." He whispered sadly, realizing that she wasn't going to get up, "No. Please, no.". He finally let the tears slip silently down his faceplates, blurring his vision of the body of his femme.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooO

When Chromia and Ironhide were attacked by the Decepticon ship, Prowl had been in his office, hunting for his datapad of lists that he'd misplaced.

"Watcha doin'?" Jazz called from the doorway and Prowl jerked his helm up, smacking it on the underside of his desk where he'd been looking.

"Primus." He rubbed his helm, "Looking for my datapad." He began riffling through a stack on his desk as Jazz moved into the room.

"Hey Prowler." Jazz said, spying a datapad on top of a cabinet, "Is that it up there?"

Prowl looked up, "Yeah. Would you mind grabbing it?"

"Why?" Jazz smirked, sauntering over to the cabinet, " 'Cuz yer so short and adorable?"

"Hey!" Prowl flushed, "You're only like an inch taller than me!"

"And doncha forget it." Jazz stretched his arm out to the top of the cabinet and frowned, realizing he couldn't quite reach it.

"Having some trouble Mr. Giraffe?" Prowl said smugly as Jazz stood on the tips of his toes.

"Naw." Jazz puffed, "I got this."

He stuck one of his legs out slightly in an attempt to gain more height and Prowl closed his optics, surprised at how turned on he was at the sight.

 _Why does he have to have such a big aft?_ , Prowl rubbed his forehelm and smiled a little, _Not that I'm complaining. How could having a boyfriend with a big aft possibly be a bad thing?_

 _He's not my boyfriend anymore,_ Prowl corrected himself, _He's my bonded_. A small surge of happiness shot through him, _Jazz is bonded with me. I still can't believe it._

He stiffened suddenly, _Wait. Jazz is my bonded. That means...he can hear everything I'm thinking._

"Don' let that stop ya Prowler." Jazz called back mischievously, "I could listen to those dirty thoughts of yers all day!" He wiggled his aft a little and Prowl laughed, embarrassed.

Jazz finally snagged the datapad and walked back to Prowl, a huge grin on his faceplates, "Here ya go."

"Stop looking at me like that." Prowl complained, "I'm allowed to...admire."

"Yeah?" Jazz grinned, "Well, if yer allowed to admire, then I am too."

Prowl heard his next thought, and his optics practically bugged out of their sockets, "Jazz! Jazz, no we-we couldn't!"

"Why not?" The saboteur said seductively, leaning towards Prowl, forcing the tactician bot to back up until he was pressed against the edge of his desk.

"Because I would like to keep my office clean." Prowl playfully shoved the saboteur off him and moved away, "Not covered in transfluid."

Jazz sighed, disappointed, but caught the tactician bot's servo, "Hey."

"What?"

Jazz smiled happily, "I still can't believe we're bonded either. I kinda feel like I'm dreamin'."

Prowl smiled, "I love you."

"I love you too."

Prowl received a comm just then and sighed at the interruption, :Yes?:

:Prowl, it's Optimus.: The Prime said, :I have bad news. There's been an attack.:

:A Decepticon attack?: Prowl practically flew to his computer, :Where?:

:The old Estonce building.: Optimus sighed, :But that's not the bad news. Chromia and Ironhide are missing. We think they may have been captured.:

Prowl sat back in his chair, stunned, as Jazz sat heavily on Prowl's desk, his optics anxious, :Captured? Ironhide and Chromia? We've….we've got to get them back!:

:Yes.: Optimus said gravely, :I'm organizing a rescue team to depart as soon as we have enough bots. So far I only have myself, Blaster, Bumblebee, and Smokescreen. I need you to recruit more bots for this mission, and monitor all commlinks until they are found.:

:Yes sir.: Prowl ended the comm and turned to his computer without a word, beginning to link all of the commlink frequencies to it.

"Prowler." Jazz said unhappily, "What can I do to help?"

"Nothing." He shook his helm firmly, but his inner voice said, _That's not true_.

"Let me on the team." Jazz said quietly, "I know ya don't want to but-"

"But what Jazz?" Prowl said, agitated, "I just bonded with you yesterday; I don't want you to offline! They're going right into Darkmount and some of them aren't coming back."

"Ironhide and Chromia are two of my best friends." Jazz told him, "I'm not just gonna sit here on my aft while they're in trouble. So either let me on the team, or I'll go to Optimus and have him do it."

Prowl exhaled, "Please, please be careful. If you don't make it back here in one piece, I will personally offline you!"

Jazz raised an optic ridge, "If I'm already offline? How ya plan to do that?"

"I'll find a way." Prowl vowed

"Fine." Jazz sighed, "I'll be very careful. Buuuut." He grinned, pulling Prowl towards him, "Just in case I don't make it back…."

"Uggh fine." Prowl gave him a quick kiss, then thought better of it and gave him a much deeper, more passionate kiss. "Please come back to me." The tactician bot looked up at him with those worried teal optics

"Of course." Jazz murmured. He kissed the top of his helm lovingly and began walking towards the door, pausing when he got there. He looked back at Prowl and said softly, "Love ya Prowler."

"Love you too Jazz." Prowl sighed

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ironhide slumped next to Chromia's limp form, the tears still falling. Looking at her, he thought sadly, _She tried so hard to be tough like a mech. And she was, at the same time as being as beautiful as a femme. I should have told her-wait did she just move?_

Ironhide stared at the femme he thought was offline for a full minute, trying to detect movement. Finally, when he had given up and his spark had sunk back to his peds, she coughed weakly.

"Chromia." Ironhide choked happily, "You're-you're alive!"

"You doubted it?" She groaned, her optics onlining as she smiled up at him with those dazzling sapphire optics, "Toldja I was strong enough to-"

She barely got halfway through her sentence before Ironhide was kissing her, cupping her faceplates in his servos. She was so surprised she accidentally smacked him.

"Ah." He winced, "Chromia…."

"Sorry." She gasped, both from lack of air and the amount of pain she was in, "Defense mechanism."

"Please don't ever do that to me again." Ironhide sighed, relieved

"What? Smack you? Because you're just lucky my defense mechanism to you randomly kissing me wasn't to kick you in the nuts like normal femmes."

He laughed, his optics practically sparkling, "No, I meant please don't ever scare me like that. I thought-I thought ya were dead Chro-mo."

"I feel dead." She groaned, "My entire frame-everything fragging hurts like Pit."

"I can carry you back to base." Ironhide stood unsteadily.

She raised an optic ridge, "On your busted leg? After you look like you've been bawling your optics out?"

"I was not!" He blushed. She just looked at him and he withered, "Okay maybe a little. But only 'cuz I thought ya were dead."

She rolled her optics, "You're like a big teddy bear, honestly. But anyways, you don't have to carry me, because I got us a comm link!" She paused and looked at him, "Where did you put it? Thistleant should have given it to you."

He patted his subspaces and scanned the area around them quickly, "Aha! There it is!" He scooped it up and attached it to his audio receptor, :Prowl, do you copy? It's Ironhide.:

:...Ironhide?: Prowl commed, disbelieving, :Where in Pit are you? Is Chromia with you?:

:Yeah.: Ironhide gave her a thumbs up and she groaned, :We're a little worse for wear, but we're online at least. Can ya get us a groundbridge?:

The swirling blue vortex appeared before them and Ironhide glanced apologetically at Chromia, "I might have to carry ya a little bit."

"This is the only time you will hear me say this." Chromia winced as he picked her up, "But please be gentle. It hurts a lot." Then she blushed as she remembered her dream with Ironhide carrying her to his quarters.

"Are you blushing?" He asked amusedly as he hobbled into the groundbridge.

"Shut up."

He chuckled, "It's good to have you back Chro-mo."


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N Okay just letting you guys know it might be a while before I post another chapter because I'm going to camp today and there is NO TECHNOLOGY ALLOWED EVER. So ya. Hang in there.**

Prowl watched the two injured bots walk through the groundbridge and immediately get swarmed by Red Alert, Firestar, and Strongarm.

He was glad to have the two bots back, but he was worriedly hailing Optimus with comms, trying to tell them not to invade Darkmount. They needed to turn back before the fighting started, before anyone got hurt. Before Jazz got hurt.

Finally he reached the Prime, :Hello?:

:Optimus!: Prowl sighed, :Retreat, Ironhide and Chromia have been found:

:They have?: Optimus frowned, :Where are they?:

:Safely in the base: Prowl commed, :I would suggest we recall the mission before there are any casualties. There are none so far, correct?:

Prowl held his breath until the Prime finally responded, :Correct. We will return via groundbridge once we are far enough from Darkmount:

He ended the commlink and Prowl breathed a sigh of relief before heading down to the Medbay to check on the two injured soldiers.

Strangely they weren't bickering as they usually did, Prowl noted as he entered the Medbay. Chromia was just lying limply on a medical berth, unable to move without pain. Ironhide was sitting in a chair next to her, glancing worriedly at her every few minutes, his servo resting unconsciously on his leg.

"Chromia. Ironhide." Prowl greeted, "How are you two doing?"

"I'm alright." Ironhide said

"I feel like a useless old lady." Chromia grumbled, "I can't even fragging move!"

Prowl shook his helm, smiling a little, "I'm glad you're both okay. I would ask what happened but Optimus will be returning soon from the rescue mission and I know he'll want to hear it too."

"No!" Chromia struggled to sit up but Ironhide pushed her down, giving her a stern warning glance, "The rescue mission can't be canceled! There are still Autobot prisoners at Darkmount; Ironhide saw them and Starscream was bragging to me about how many there were."

Ironhide nodded, "I couldn't see too well 'cuz it was dark, but there was 'bout 20 or 30 cells and they were all full."

"20 to 30 more Autobots?" Prowl was shocked, "I had no idea the Decepticons had any Autobot captives, much less that many!"

"Yes." Chromia nodded fiercely, one of the few things she could do, "You have to get them out of there. All of them. We're gonna need almost the whole team behind this mission too, not just five or ten of us."

"I'll let Optimus know and we'll begin the mission as soon as possible." Prowl said seriously, "Thank you for the information you two."

He turned to leave, nearly bumping into Strongarm and Firestar who were coming in with for cubes of energon balanced in their servos.

Firestar handed one to Ironhide and Strongarm helped Chromia drink one as Firestar asked, "So what happened to you guys?"

Chromia told them the whole long story, figuring Ironhide could retell it to Optimus later. She tactfully left out the part where Ironhide had kissed her, knowing that the two femmes would go nuts over that piece of information.

When she finished, the two femmes were just sitting there, shocked at what the two had gone through. Finally, Firestar said, "So….you saved Ironhide's life and now you've been reduced to lifeless jelly?"

"Hey!" Chromia said angrily, "I would smack you if I could move my damn arms."

"Didn't stop ya before." Ironhide scowled teasingly

"Wait, you smacked him?" Strongarm asked, "Why?"

Chromia blushed a little and tried to say nonchalantly, "I dunno, probably because he did something dumb and Ironhideish."

"You're blushing again." Firestar said evilly, flicking her optics between the two.

"Again?" Ironhide frowned, "Why was she blushin' before?"

"Oh, no reason really." Firestar smirked, stretching her legs. Chromia could have sworn she saw little demon horns appear on the top of the femme's helm, "She just got a little….heated."

Ironhide just frowned confusedly and Chromia silently thanked Primus he wasn't a smart one, "Hey Star, aren't you supposed to be doing that thing?"

"What thing?" Firestar said innocently

"The thing?" Chromia glared at her, "The thing that you have to do to prevent extreme damage to femmes, particularly ones with red plating?"

"Oh that thing." Firestar said hastily, getting up out of her chair, "C'mon Strongarm. You can help me with it."

They walked towards the door and once they were out of Ironhide's field of vision, Firestar began making kissy faces and hearts with her servos, Strongarm copying her.

Chromia glared extra hard at her, hoping maybe she would spontaneously combust, but of course that was unsuccessful. Eventually the femmes got tired and with one last sultry wink at Chromia, Firestar finally walked out the door, with Strongarm behind her.

An awkward silence fell between Ironhide and Chromia, and Chromia recalled the feeling of his kiss, which she hadn't allowed herself to think about until now. It had been so long since she had been kissed by anyone, and she had forgotten how amazing it felt, how passionate and tender they could be….

 _Stop it,_ She told herself, squashing her feelings of attraction, _We are not getting involved with anymore mechs in the middle of a war. Not again. It's too easy to...to lose them._

"Chromia?" Ironhide asked, interrupting her thoughts before they could take a dive into despair, "I wanted to...ask ya somethin'."

 _Uh-oh,_ Chromia panicked, _Quick, stall!_ "I'm kinda tired." She lied, "Wanna talk tomorrow?"

"Oh." Ironhide looked down at his peds dissapointedly, "Uh, sure."

"And by the way," She added, "Since I saved your life, I expect you to be here everyday to entertain me until I get out of this hellhole."

She expected him to get angry, swear, or at the very least be vaguely annoyed. But he just smiled at her, "Sure Chro-mo. I look forward to torturin' ya."

He stood up to go and Chromia just kinda stared at him. _Dear Primus,_ She thought, dismayed, _I think the poor mech's already falling for me! This is not good. How am I gonna tell him I can't…_

She watched him walk away, only wincing a little on his newly bandaged leg, trying to look tough because he knew she was watching. _Do I even want to tell him?,_ She wondered distantly

When he was out of sight, Chromia turned over onto her side on the scratchy medical blanket, resolving to get some recharge.

With all this damn mech drama she was going to need it.


	16. Chapter 16

Chromia hadn't been in the Autobot base for long, but she had never seen it so busy as it was that morning. What was killing her was that she couldn't do anything to help.

Optimus had arrived with the rest of the team during the night and had immediately proceeded to organize a second rescue mission, after being told the story of their escape by Ironhide. Now all of the Autobots that had been recruited for the mission, which was basically everyone except Red Alert and Chromia, were running around trying to prepare for this last minute mission.

With the pain medications Red had given her, Chromia was able to sit up, fold her arms, and even glare at all of the other bots. They got to go on a mission and do something useful, while Chromia was forced to sit in a berth like an old sack of potatoes. She was pretty sure if she tried to stand she would pass out, but Red wouldn't let her find out what would happen.

While Chromia sulked, Ironhide approached the busy Prime cautiously, "Sir?"

"Yes Ironhide?" Optimus sighed wearily

"I wanted to ask ya if it'd be alright if I stayed behind for this one?" Ironhide rubbed his neck uncomfortably, "You know me, I hate to run from a fight. But I kinda promised Chromia I'd keep her occupied."

"Occupied?" Optimus asked, remembering the last time two of his bots had messed up their duties because they were 'occupied', "Are you and Chromia….?"

"NO!" Ironhide almost shouted, his optics widening, "No, Primus. I just-ahem-she asked me to-"

"I understand." Optimus smiled a little, "You may remain here and monitor Chromia to ensure she does not strain herself, as I suspect she will attempt to do. Red Alert will be stationed in Prowl's office, monitoring the commlinks and Groundbridge, so he will not be in the Medbay to assist Chromia if she needs it."

Ironhide nodded, relieved, "Thanks Prime."

He headed down to the Medbay, where Chromia and Red Alert were in the middle of a heated argument, as the medic was trying to leave to report to his station.

"You can't seriously plan to make me stay here! I need to be out there fighting!"

"Chromia." Red said sternly, "Prime has specifically ordered that you stay here. I'm not going to go against his orders and let you mosey around. Furthermore, you can't even stand on your own two peds, let alone fight."

"We don't know if I can stand or not because you won't let me up." Chromia replied tersely

Red Alert closed his optics, a little irritated, "Let me rephrase that. I am ninety percent certain that if you attempt to stand up, your systems will be overwhelmed with pain and you will temporarily offline."

"And what about the other ten percent?"

"Chromia!" The medic burst out angrily, "The answer is no! Now stop arguing with me so I can report to Prowl's office, where I'm supposed to be."

Chromia glared at the back of his helm as he walked towards the door, stopping at Ironhide. He said in a low voice, "Watch her, will you? And comm me if anything happens."

Ironhide nodded and the medic left, casting a worried and annoyed glance back at Chromia before he disappeared through the door.

"What are you doing here?" Chromia asked glumly as Ironhide sat heavily in the chair next to her berth, "Come to gloat?"

"About what?"

"You get to go on the mission." Chromia eyed him, "And I don't."

"Actually." Ironhide grinned, "Neither of us will be going on the mission today."

She stared at him, "You're not going? Why? Don't they need you?"

He shrugged, "Kinda. But Optimus decided I would be more useful here. Ya know, makin' sure ya don't go batshit crazy."

The silver and blue femme's faceplates twitched into a smile, "Prime just decided that, huh?"

"Sure did."

There was a silence for a moment and then he coughed, "So, I wanted to ask ya-"

"Hey, you wanna play a game?" She completely cut him off, "How 'bout Truth or Dare?"

He stared at her, realizing that she was avoiding talking to him on purpose. "Fine Chro-mo." He said evenly, "I'll play yer game. Truth or Dare?"

"Dare." Chromia said impulsively, "I can never resist a good dare."

"Okay." He folded his arms, "Dare ya to let me talk to ya and say what I wanna say."

 _Apparently he isn't as dumb as he looks_ , Chromia thought and said hesitantly, "Uh…. Truth?"

He leaned his elbows on the rails of her berth and gazed at her with an unwavering stare, his steel blue optics intense. Chromia kind of felt like she was freezing and melting at the same time, looking into those optics. "Tell me why ya don't want me to talk about this." He said

"Dammit 'Hide." Chromia sighed, drawing her knees up to her chassis, "I was trying to spare you some pain. Short answer is no."

"No? Wait, just to make sure we're gettin' it right here, ya know what I was tryin' to ask ya right?"

"You want to know if I'm…. interested in you." Chromia sighed, "If I would want to go out with you. And the answer is completely, absolutely no."

"Oh." 'Hide swallowed the lump of disappointment, "Ya don't like me at all?"

Chromia closed her optics, "Don't make me answer that question please."

"Why not?"

"Because I'll have to lie. And I don't want to lie to you."

"Lie to me, please." He asked, his optics saddened

"Fine." Chromia said, annoyed, "Ironhide, I absolutely despise you and I wouldn't even dream of going out with such a sexist, macho, and downright irritating mech like yourself."

Ironhide's mouth twitched into a smile, "That was the most convincing lie I've ever heard."

"Drop the subject." She warned, "I'm not getting into anything with anyone right now, so don't even ask."

"Fine." His optics shone mischievously, "I'll get ya someday Chromia. So, ya wanna keep playing the game?"

"Might as well." She leaned back against her pillows, "Primus knows there's nothing else to do in this hellhole. Truth or Dare, 'Hide?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The Autobots that were not currently at the base were advancing somewhat stealthily on the looming tower that was Darkmount. The only non-stealthy thing about it was that the twins kept running up to random bots and sticking out their legs so the unfortunate Autobot would trip over them. One of these bots happened to be Jazz, but he disappointed the twins by leaping nimbly over their outstretched legs instead of tripping.

"Ya really thought that would work?" He asked them, "I'm a fraggin' ninja bot, fer cryin' out loud."

They shrugged and ran off to hound some other poor bot, and Jazz nudged Prowl, who of course was marching right next to him.

"Never thought I'd be right back here, marchin' towards Darkmount again, a fraggin' day later."

"Yeah?" Prowl inclined his helm, "I'm just glad I'm here to keep an optic on you this time."

"Keep an optic on me?" Jazz asked, "Why? Ya can already hear everythin' I'm thinkin' anyways."

"That was the wrong phrasing, I meant more like make sure you don't get yourself horribly injured."

"Oh, so only slightly injured is alright?" Jazz teased, "I'll have to be a little careless fer that."

"Don't, Jazz please." Prowl sighed, "Don't even joke like that. You know how I worry….and you are normally quite reckless anyways."

"Aw, I'm sorry babe." Jazz slung his arm around Prowl and twanged his nose playfully, "Yer just so adorable when yer concerned. I'll be extra careful, promise."

"You'd better."

Their conversation stopped when Optimus signaled the team to halt as Darkmount came into view in the distance. _"_ _Here comes the rousin' speech."_ Jazz thought, and Prowl almost chuckled

"Autobots." Optimus said, in a loud, clear voice that immediately made everyone shut up and pay attention, "Today, we take the fight to the Decepticons. They have captured, tortured, and killed our soldiers, and they will pay for it now, when we liberate those captives." He paused and then added, "This will be costly fight, and there will be casualties. Some of you may not make it back to base online. But we must always remember our duty, to each other and to Cybertron. Autobots, roll out!"


	17. Chapter 17

"Hmmmm." Ironhide tilted his helm thoughtfully in response to Chromia's question, "Dare?"

She grinned wickedly, "You're gonna regret that. I dare you to comm Red Alert and ask him out."

Ironhide gaped at her, "No. You wouldn't-come on, Chromia. Don't make me do that."

Chromia smirked at the usually tough bot, who was beginning to cringe, "You're just lucky I didn't decide to have you comm Optimus. Do it, or I win, Hotshot."

Grumbling, "I hate you so much." under his breath, Ironhide opened a commlink, :Red:

:What is it?: The medic commed back worriedly, :Is Chromia okay?:

:That pain in the aft is fine: He scowled at the blue and silver femme, who waggled her optic ridges at him, :I just have to ask ya somethin':

:Oh: Red paused, and Ironhide secretly added Chromia to the commlinks, :Well what is it?:

'Hide cringed horribly, :…Would ya wanna go out with me?:

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the commlinks as Chromia struggled to hold back her laughter. Finally, Red Alert said, :Uh, Ironhide…you know…I don't really-:

Ironhide interrupted him, :Sorry for botherin' ya, Red. Chromia and me are playin' Truth or Dare, and she dared me to ask ya out:

:Ironhide: Red Alert vented, both relieved and angry, :The commlinks are supposed to be for matters of importance, especially with everyone out on a mission. It's not for your stupid game!:

:My bad: Ironhide apologized again

:I would expect something this childish from Chromia perhaps, but not you:

:Hey!: Chromia said angrily, :Watch what ya say about me, medic!:

:Chromia is on this line?: Red asked

:Yup: Ironhide winced

Red Alert hastily terminated the comm and Chromia burst out laughing, "You-hahaha-that was amazing!"

"I hate you so fragging much." Ironhide rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm never doing dare with you again." Then he grinned unexpectedly, "Your turn, femme. Truth or Dare?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Chromia laughed, "Dare. I'm not scared; you won't be able to come up with anything good anyways."

"Hey!" Ironhide put a servo to his chassis, mock offended, "Prepare to eat your words, femme. I dare you to…do a monkey dance for a solid minute. It has to be convincing, too."

"Fine." Chromia said boldly, figuring it wouldn't be embarrassing if she pretended not to care. She got up slowly, testing her weight on her peds, before standing completely unassisted, swaying slightly. "Ha!" She shouted triumphantly, "I told that stupid medic I could do it."

"I'm so proud." 'Hide said sarcastically, "Now, dance monkey."

Rolling her optics, Chromia began to shuffle awkwardly from side to side, pretending to scratch under her arms. "Eep eep." She muttered and Ironhide began to cackle

"Ya don't seem to be actin' any different, Chro-mo." He laughed, "Ain't this how ya are all the time?"

"Not. Funny." Chromia gasped, beginning to get a little light headed. She stumbled and nearly fell to the ground, but Ironhide stepped forward to catch her just in time. He hurriedly laid her back on the berth and hovered over her worriedly

"You okay?"

"Peachy." She groaned, her helm hurting, "Just got a little light headed is all. Nothing to worry about."

"Should I comm Red?"

"No!" Chromia practically shouted, "I'm fine, and that damn medic will only say 'I told you so' anyways. I'll be fine in a minute." She rested her helm back on her pillows and grinned up at him, "In the meantime, it's your turn."

"Aw Pit." He muttered

"Please, please, please pick Dare."

"Frag no." He poked his glossa out at her, "Not with you around anyways. Truth."

"Okay, fine." She sat up, thinking, "How 'bout….your most embarrassing moment with a femme."

He cringed, "Ya know I really, really hate you, right?"

"It hurts so bad." She rolled her optics and pointed a digit at him, "Spill."

Ironhide rubbed his neck, "It was probably…well when I was 'round Smokescreen's age, there was this femme…Silverstar I think her name was. I dunno, it was so long ago."

"Please." Chromia snorted, "Like you're so old. Anyways, go on, get to the good stuff."

"I sent her one of those cards that said 'Will you go out with me?' and then ya had to check yes or no." 'Hide winced

"No way!" Chromia laughed, "That is so cheesy. What did she say?"

"She gave it back to me the next day" He sighed, "With the 'no' box checked. Turns out she already had a boyfriend."

"Aw, poor sparkling you." Chromia chuckled, "I still can't believe you were ever crushing on someone."

Ironhide raised an optic ridge, "Believe it. I'm crushin' on someone now, matter a fact."

"Who-oh." Chromia's faceplates burned as she realized what he was saying, "Uhhhhh…it's my turn right?"

Ironhide sighed, "Right. Should I even ask which one ya want?"

"No. Dare."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then scooted his chair closer to her berth, "Hey Chro-mo."

"What?"

His faceplates flushed, but he held her gaze firmly, "Dare ya to kiss me."

" 'Hide, ya can't be-" She stopped when she saw that he was completely serious. She wanted to look down, embarrassed, at her lap, but she couldn't break away from his gaze. _Damn those optics_ , she thought angrily, _He's gonna get himself killed someday, and I'm gonna be a fraggin' wreck_. _Again_.

And then she realized that at this moment she completely, utterly did not give a frag. All she could think about was how his lips had felt in that desert, so rough and gentle at the same time.

"Primus dammit." She sighed, and reached out, grabbed his collar plate, and yanked him to her, their lips meeting with an audible crash of metal. The kiss was passionate, tender, warm, and everything they both needed it to be, but Chromia forced herself to pull away after a few seconds.

"There." She wiped her mouth, pretending to be disgusted "Happy?"

He closed his optics, and sighed contentedly, "Relatively." He opened them again and stared at her, "Why do ya do this? I can tell ya like me, even if ya pretend not to."

"Hey buster, you already asked me Truth or Dare, and I believe I said Dare." Chromia crossed her arms, "This isn't truth time, and it ain't gonna be anytime soon."

"So that's why ya always pick Dare." Ironhide mused, "So ya don't have to tell anybot anything. Fine. It's my turn, and I pick Truth."

Chromia tilted her helm thoughtfully. There were so many things she could ask; something embarrassing perhaps? But there were things she genuinely wanted to know about him too, things that she was curious about. "Why do you like me?" She asked suddenly, "I mean, there are about five or six other, attractive femmes on this base, but you picked the one femme who's- who's rude and crass and fights with everyone."

Ironhide face palmed, "Chro-mo! Those are all the reasons I like ya, ya dumbaft."

"Really?" She stared at him curiously, "Why?"

He waved a servo, "I'm sick of all these prissy femmes to be honest. I like that yer tough and ya ain't afraid to say whatcha think. Although," He grinned, "Yer a little bit irritatin' sometimes."

"Oh, you're one to talk." Chromia rolled her optics, "You're the most annoying bot I've ever met. And that includes Starscream."

"Hey, at least I didn't completely humiliate ya on yer first day here!" Ironhide scowled

"That was why I humiliated you." She smirked, "You were being sexist and annoying. As usual."

His optics narrowed, "I swear femme, if ya weren't laid up, I'd take ya right here and now."

She smiled cheekily, "I'm sure you would try."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Optimus always fought his hardest on the battlefield, and gave it every ounce of his attention. But today, his attention was being drawn to something else, something he couldn't help but notice about two of his soldiers, how amazing their fighting skills were.

Prowl and Jazz were, of course, two of his best fighters, next to Ironhide and Bumblebee, but it seemed as if their fighting skills had increased tenfold since the last time Optimus had seen them in battle. The way they moved, and took down Decepticons in sync without speaking, almost like they were the same bot.

It vaguely reminded Optimus of how Bumblebee and Magnia looked when they fought, how in tune they were with each other. But that was because they were bonded of course. He knew Prowl and Jazz had been dating for a long time, but he didn't think they were bonded…were they?

A Decepticon slashed at his helm, and he barely ducked in time, refocusing himself on the task at hand. He would ask the two bots at a later time. Right now, he had bigger things to worry about.


	18. Chapter 18

The Autobots finally pushed past the Decepticons defending Darkmount and stormed the tower. Half of the Autobots ran forward to clear the way to the brig, while the other half covered them from behind, holding back the swelling numbers of Decepticons.

Shots of blue and purple, discharged from both sides' guns, bounced from wall to wall as the advancing team, led by Prowl, zoomed down the hall, taking down snarling Decepticons left and right. When they reached the brig and began breaking open the cells, Prowl commed Red Alert, who was back in the base.

:Red. Open the ground bridge, now!:

The medic complied and the team quickly hustled about ten injured Autobot prisoners through. The remaining former Autobot prisoners stayed to fight the Decepticons that had imprisoned them for so long.

The Autobots that were still holding off the Decepticons began slowly backing up into the ground bridge, firing at the Decepticons. They screamed in rage, knowing that their opponents were escaping, as the Autobots all vanished through the ground bridge and emerged in the base in Iacon.

There were several injured Autobots, but no one was fatally wounded or offline. Red Alert had commed Knockout to come help him, realizing that all of these injuries were going to take a while to fix.

"We did it." Jazz panted next to Prowl, "We got 'em all."

"Yes." Prowl nodded proudly, "We did." Then the adrenaline fled his system, and for the first time he felt the sharp pain in his side. He gasped, and went to feel the metal there, but it was completely smooth and unbloodied. Then he glanced at Jazz, who had a servo pressed to his side and was breathing heavily.

"Jazz?" Prowl removed his servo from his side, realizing he wasn't the injured one, "Jazz, are you alright? Move your servo."

"I'm fine." Jazz waved him off, "Just gotta sit down for a mo'." He flopped ungracefully to the ground and tilted his helm back, stifling a groan.

"You're not fine, I can feel it!" Prowl insisted, optics wide with worry, "Let me see."

Jazz sighed and removed his servo, drenched in energon, revealing a deep gash in his side, bleeding profusely. "It don' hurt that bad!" He protested, seeing the look of panic on his bonded's face.

"Don't lie to me you afthole, I know exactly how much it hurts!" Prowl seethed, a combination of angry and worried, as his servos hovered over Jazz's wound, "I'll go get Red Alert."

"No, don' bother him. He's got enough bots to worry 'bout as it is." Jazz sighed, "Just get me some bandages er somethin'."

"Fine." Prowl stood, giving him another concerned look, "Don't go anywhere please. I'll be right back."

"Where am I gonna go Prowler?" Jazz laughed, but Prowl had already turned and walked away.

He returned a few minutes later with a bottle of cleaner and some bandages. Jazz looked appropriately nervous as Prowl dabbed the cleaner onto some cloth, "Don' kill me Prowler. I'm already hurt, don' need more hurt."

"You need the cleaner or else it will get infected."

"Be gentle?" Jazz said weakly

Prowl rolled his optics, "Come here, you big baby." He pulled Jazz closer to him and began liberally dabbing the cleaner all over the wound as Jazz hissed in pain.

"Why ya so mean to me?" He winced

"Why?" Prowl said angrily, rubbing a bit more vigorously, "Because you got injured and scared the scrap out of me, even though I specifically asked you to be careful. You can't be reckless like this anymore!"

"Why?"

"Because now you've got someone who cares about you." Prowl sighed, "And if anything happens to you, I'll be destroyed. How would you like it if I was acting all reckless on the battlefield and got injured and scared the scrap out of you?"

Jazz was silent for a moment as Prowl carefully bandaged his wound. Finally he said, "I promised ya I would be careful and I meant it, Prowler. Someone shot me when I wasn't lookin' and I ignored it 'till now. It wasn't cuz I was bein' all crazy and reckless and jumpin' around like usual."

Prowl sighed, seeing that Jazz was telling the truth, "I'm sorry I over reacted. I just get really freaked out when you get hurt."

"Prowler, yer gonna have to deal with it though." Jazz reached out and grabbed the tactician bot's servo, "Ya can't panic every time I get injured, 'cuz that's gonna happen sometimes. We're fightin' a war; there's gonna be injuries. I'll try to be as careful as I can, and that's the best I can do."

Prowl nodded and gave him a weak smile, "That's the most I can ask for."

Optimus hurried by just then, trying to help Red Alert get everyone situated in the Medbay, and stopped in front of Jazz and Prowl.

"Hello you two." His optics widened, seeing Jazz's bandages, "Jazz, are you alright?"

"Fine." Jazz winced, "A lil worse for wear, but I'm alright."

Optimus hmmed and then said, "Oh, I meant to ask...are you two bonded?"

Prowl flushed, "Yes. How did you know?"

Optimus raised an optic ridge, "I watched the two of you fight together and figured it out. Congratulations, by the way."

Jazz beamed, "Thanks Prime."

He nodded to them and continued on his way to his office, anticipating a massive amount of casualty reports from Red Alert in a few hours. As he settled into his desk chair, he received a galactic distance comm from Earth.

He enlarged it so it was visible on his computer screen and then answered it, "Ratchet! It is good to see you. How is everything on Earth?"

The medic looked weary, "Well enough. Starscream is still keeping Shockwave and his troops and it's nearly impossible trying to fight them while staying out of sight of the humans. How did the rescue mission today?"

The two old friends talked for a while, bringing each other up to speed. Ratchet asked about his sparkling and grand sparkling, of course, and Optimus asked about his former commander, Ultra Magnus, who was now leading the team on Earth.

Then, once the catching up and pleasantries were over, the conversation became more real. Optimus sighed and ran a servo over his helm, "Ratchet. Can I ask you a personal question?"

"A personal question?" Ratchet looked astonished, "From you? This I gotta hear."

"I would not ask you, but…"

"I'm the only bot you got to talk to." Ratchet nodded and leaned back in his chair, "Well? I'm listening."

"We...we are getting older Ratchet." Optimus' shoulders slumped a little

"Hey!" The medic argued, "We're not that old…."

"We are, Ratchet." Optimus pressed a digit to the side of his helm, "There is no use denying it. We are no longer those young, energetic bots we once were, in our days on Cybertron."

"I suppose not." Ratchet reluctantly admitted, "Where are you going with this? There had better have been a reason other than to just depress the Pit out of us."

The Prime sighed again, "You...you have already found love once in your life. I am beginning to fear...that I never will."

"Ah, scrap, Optimus." The medic scrubbed his faceplates, "You had Elita, didn't you?"

"We were only dating when she was...killed." Optimus swallowed the lump in his throat, "It was not love yet, although who knows what might have been."

Ratchet sighed, "The only advice I can give you is to keep looking. I believe that every bot is given a chance to be with their sparkmate, even if it's not in this life."

"That is what I'm afraid of." Optimus rested his gaze on the floor, "That I have already had my chance, and I messed it up. I let her die."

Ratchet nodded sadly, "I understand that more than anyone. That's why I hope that someday I will get to be with her again, in the Well. That could happen to you too, or you might find someone and fall in love with them, either here or there."

"I suppose that is true." Optimus leaned forward, "But what about you, old friend? You should be optimistic about finding new love as well."

Ratchet laughed distractedly, "Hardly anyone ever has two sparkmates in their lifetime, Prime. I've already been bonded once; it's unlikely to happen again. My spark is too damaged from the severing of Crossblade's bond."

"Damaged?" Optimus frowned; this was the first he was hearing of this, "Physically or emotionally?"

"...Both."

"Why have you never told me this?" Optimus said, concerned, "Crossblade died so long ago."

"It's not horribly painful." Ratchet looked tired, "I can bear it, and I didn't want you to worry. You already have so much to worry about anyways."

"Ratchet, that is a horrible excuse." Optimus looked worried, "You know that I am your friend before I am your commander, and you should have told me. Never mind if I am occupied or not; I will always be occupied with everything."

"Fine." The medic grumbled, "Next time I'll tell you if I damage my spark through the severing of a bond."

Optimus shook his helm; that was all he would get out of the grumpy medic.


	19. Chapter 19

When Chromia was finally released from the Medbay, the first place she went was not her quarters, as Red Alert had ordered, but to the training room. She had been confined to a cramped medical berth with scratchy blankets for days, and now was the time to make up for it.

As she set up a punching bag and began to attack it with a series of jabs and punches, Firestar popped her helm into the room, "Hey Captain! Good to see you up and running."

"Thanks." Chromia paused and smiled back at her friend, "Where's Strongarm?"

"Right here." The blue and white femme appeared in the doorway, Sideswipe tagging along behind her, "I thought I might find you in here, so soon after you get released from the Medbay. What are we talking about?"

Firestar shrugged, "I just came to tell Chromia something. Guess I could tell ya both since you're here."

"Really?" Strongarm frowned, "I came to tell her something too."

"Well get in line then sister." Firestar rolled her optics, "Anyways...me and Sunstreaker are dating."

"No!" Strongarm exclaimed

"No fragging way!" Sideswipe burst out laughing

"What is so funny, you afthole?" Firestar's faceplates flushed, "I can date your brother if I want!"

"No, it's not that hahaha." Sideswipe was practically gasping for air at this point, "It's-It's-"

"We're dating." Strongarm gestured between her and the red bot, who promptly began cracking up again.

Firestar gawked at the two of them, as Chromia glanced bemusedly at the two femmes, "It would appear both of you are dating the twins."

"You're dating Sideswipe?!" Firestar's optics were huge

"I thought you hated him?" Chromia asked

"And what happened to Bumblebee?"

"Whoa time out." Sideswipe waved his hands, "You hated me? And also Bumblebee? Seriously? I mean, not that I don't love the guy, but he's like a million years old, and has a sparkling."

Strongarm blushed a million shades of blue, "I might have had a little bit of a crush on him."

"Might have." Firestar cackled

Strongarm shot her a glare and continued, "I kinda realized I like him more as a mentor though. And I didn't hate you. I just...very strongly disliked you."

"Sure." Chromia snorted

"What was it you said?" Firestar pondered and then grinned evilly, "Oh yeah. You said you would shove him in a trash compactor the first chance you got. Must have been love at first sight for you two."

"Must have." Sideswipe raised an optic ridge jokingly at Strongarm, who looked like she might die, "A trash compactor? I mean I get I'm annoying, but I didn't think I was that annoying."

"You were." Strongarm teased, "But I got over it. Plus you can be sweet when you wanna be."

Sideswipe grinned happily and Firestar rolled her optics, "So just like that? You went from enemies to kissy-smoochy?"

Strongarm shrugged, "It took a while. We were kinda forced to become a team and rely on each other, and one thing led to another…" She trailed off and blushed

"Awww! Strongarm and Sideswipe sittin' in a tree…" Firestar immediately launched into the irritating song

"Hey what about you?!" Strongarm said defensively, "I could start singing about you and Sunstreaker sitting in a tree!"

"Hahaha go right ahead." Firestar shrugged, "You know it doesn't bother me. I'm dating Sunstreaker 'cuz he's fun and knows how to have a good time. He makes me laugh, unlike some stiff bots I know." She shot a look at Strongarm, and the blue and white femme folded her arms.

"Yeah? Well at least Sideswipe's not a complete moron."

"Thanks?" Sideswipe questioned, looking slightly offended

"Sunny's not a moron!" Firestar sputtered

Strongarm grinned, "Oh, I wasn't referring to Sunstreaker."

"Damn, femme!" Sideswipe whooped, and Chromia began edging towards the door, seeing Firestar's face beginning to a rageful blue.

"Okaaay, I'm gonna leave now." She said, hastily yanking the door open and shutting it behind her. Not a moment later she heard a crash and a muffled yelp, followed by Sideswipe yelling, "Gahhhh! Get me outta-"

Chromia walked quickly away from the door and headed to her quarters, intent on maybe getting some of the rest she had been ordered to. She was stopped outside her door, however, by Magnia, Knockout, and Roulette, the two sparklings Ravenblade and Nitrostar with them.

"Hey Chromia!" Magnia said cheerfully, "How are you feeling?"

"Well." Chromia eyed the two sparklings suspiciously, "Why?"

"We were wondering if you would be willing to watch these two for us for a few hours?" Knockout asked, "The big O wants to consult the three of us about the meaning of some Decepticon activity. We would have asked Arcee, Prowl, or Jazz, but they're all busy doing Primus knows what."

"And we don't trust the sparklings with anyone else." Roulette said worriedly

" 'Mia!" Ravenblade said happily, having just noticed her. Nitrostar frowned, unfamiliar with this blue and silver femme. He was quite a serious mech for only the age of three solar cycles, and was very protective of Ravenblade.

"...Sure?" Chromia said hesitantly. She had almost no experience with sparklings; she was just lucky Ravenblade had been well-behaved when she watched her for those few hours.

"Great!" The three of them chimed in unison. Chromia let them into her quarters, where they sat the sparklings down and said worried goodbyes, thanking Chromia on their way out.

And then she was alone with the sparklings.

She simply stared at them uncertainly for a moment and they stared back, one pair of bright red optics, the other a lilac purple.

Finally Chromia cleared her throat and said, "So….what do you guys wanna do?"

"What's your name?" Nitrostar asked

"Uh...Chromia."

"I'm Nitrostar." He pointed to his partner in crime, "And that's Ravenblade."

"I know." Chromia said awkwardly

"She Jazzy's fwiend." Ravenblade informed Nitrostar

"Jazzy?" Nitrostar considered, "I like Jazz. Okay, we can be friends."

"Thanks?"

"But." He added seriously, "Ravey's my best friend."

"Okay." Chromia chuckled, "So what do you guys like to play?"

"Autobots and 'Cepticons!" Ravenblade squealed and a grin split across Nitrostar's face

"How do you play that?" Chromia asked

"Ima Decepticon and Ravey's an Autobot and we fight." Nitrostar shrugged

"How come you're the Decepticon and she's the Autobot?"

"Duh, 'cuz she looks like an Autobot." Nitrostar rolled his optics

"Nitro's optics is red." Ravenblade nodded, "Plus his mommy and daddy used to be 'Cepticons."

"Ah." Chromia said uncomfortably, "Well, if you guys are being Decepticons and Autobots, then what should I do?"

They glanced at each other and shrugged. "We don't usually have anyone else to play with." Nitrostar said warily, "Just me and Ravey."

Chromia thought for a second, "Hmmm I have an idea. What if you guys are Autobots, and I'm a big bad Decepticon trying to catch you?"

"Okay!" Ravenblade chimed and Nitrostar frowned.

Before he could object, Chromia growled playfully, "I'm gonna get you little Autobots! You better watch out!"

Ravenblade giggled and dove into Chromia's covers, dragging the copper and red mech in with her, "What you gonna do to us, meanie 'Cepticon?"

"If I find those tiny Autobots, I'm gonna tickle them to death!" Chromia announced, pretending to be hunting for them, "Now if I could just find them….aha!" She ripped the covers off and Ravenblade shrieked, trying to roll away before Chromia pounced and began tickling both of them.

"Ravey….we have to...escape!" Nitrostar cried, giggling in spite of himself

"1, 2, 3, roll!" Ravenblade shouted and they both rolled out of Chromia's grip and off of the bed.

"Come back here, you rascals!" Chromia ran after them, chasing the two giggling sparklings around the room

"Quick Ravey, grab the sheet!" Nitrostar yelled, and Ravenblade nodded in understanding. They both grabbed an edge of Chromia's sheet and ran at her with it, running around and around her until she was entirely wrapped up.

"Oh no!" She laughed, pretending to flop over onto the floor, "You caught me!"

"Good job, Ravey." Nitrostar said, high fiving the small black and purple femme.

"So." Chromia wiggled out of the sheet, "What do you guys think we should do now?"

Nitrostar's optics gleamed, "Wanna play again?"


	20. Chapter 20

Roulette, Knockout, and Magnia came and collected their sparklings from an exhausted Chromia a few hours later.

"What's going on?" Chromia asked as the parents quickly hustled the sparklings out the door, worried expression on their faces.

Knockout shook his helm, "Prime's holding a mandatory debriefing meeting in 15. He'll explain everything."

"Right now, we've got to get the sparklings home." Magnia said. As they hurried away she called back, "Thank you for watching them, Chromia!"

"No problem!" Chromia shouted back, confused. It was a little concerning to see the former Decepticons acting so skittish.

Worriedly, she commed Ironhide, :Hey, did you hear about this mandatory meeting?:

:Yeah, why?:

:I just saw Knockout, Roulette, and Magnia, and they all looked really worried.: Chromia sighed, :Wanna meet up and head over there?:

:Tryin' to ask me on a date, Chro-mo?: Ironhide smirked

:If you count a 'date' as me shoving my ped so far up your-:

:Ah, okay, nevermind.: Ironhide laughed hastily, :Don' need that kinda date at the moment.:

:Mess hall. Five minutes.: Chromia terminated the commlink and exhaled. Sometimes that mech really didn't know when to quit.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

They met in the mess hall a few minutes later, Ironhide looking suspicious and wary. Chromia rolled her optics, "Come on. We might as well figure out what this is about."

"What do you think it could be?" He fell in step beside her as they made their way to the central area, where Prime usually announced things.

She shook her helm thoughtfully, "I don't know. With how the former Decepticons were acting, I think it's something bad."

"When did you see them?"

"I was watching their sparklings while they talked to Optimus."

Ironhide chuckled, "Those poor sparklings, ya probably scarred 'em for life."

Chromia scowled at him, "What do you mean? We had a great time; I played games with them and stuff."

"Uh-huh." He laughed as she shoved him in an angry but slightly playful manner

"Jerk." Chromia muttered. She glanced up to find him smiling at her. It wasn't a mocking smile, or one of his usual bitter smiles, but a warm, happy smile.

 _He's kinda cute when he doesn't look grumpy_ , She thought distantly, but shook those thoughts out of her processor and said, "What are you smiling at?"

"Huh?" He blinked, "Uh, nothin'. Just thought of somethin' funny." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. Chromia pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed wearily, and Ironhide, seeing her exasperation, said, "I don' give up easy, Chro-mo."

"What will it take?" She groaned, "What do I have to do to get you off my back?"

"I wish ya wouldn't-" He started, and then shook his helm unhappily

They arrived at the central area and Chromia immediately headed for Firestar and Strongarm, walking away from Ironhide and the intense conversation they were having.

Ironhide watched her go sadly, briefly wishing she would just tell him why she refused to even consider the idea of being with him. He felt like maybe if he knew why, then it would help him push her out of his processor and spark.

Watching her with the other two femmes, he wondered if either of them knew what it was. Maybe he could convince them to tell him.

As Optimus began to speak, Ironhide shook himself slightly and tried to pay attention.

"Autobots." He began in a calm voice, "Based on recent observed Decepticon activity near Iacon, and the opinions of our former Decepticon teammates, I have reason to believe the Decepticons are planning an attack on the city and our base."

This was met with a small intake from the crowd, which was immediately followed by an eruption into nervous chatter, while Prime tried to regain their attention.

"OY!" Blaster shouted and everyone quieted down a bit, "Quit bein' rude and pay attention to what Prime's trying to say."

"...Thank you, Blaster." The Prime raised an optic ridge, "As I was saying, I believe they are only so bold right now because they have in their possession a powerful new weapon, which a few of our teammates have encountered."

 _And helped get up and running,_ Chromia thought guiltily

"We do not know what this weapon is capable of, so we must be cautious when entering this battle." Optimus pulled a datapad from his subspace, "I am dividing everyone into groups of three to patrol the city. When you see a Decepticon, or a group of them, comm for backup immediately."

He began reading off the list of groups and Chromia winced when her name was called in Ironhide's group. At least Smokescreen was also in the group, so it couldn't get too confrontational between them. She doubted Ironhide would try to ask her out again in front of his "kid brother".

"Knockout, Mirage, Red Alert, and I will remain here and protect the base." Optimus finished reading the list and dismissed them to their posts.

Chromia sighed and headed towards Ironhide, who was already fist-bumping an excited Smokescreen.

"Hey Chromia." Smokescreen said, pumping his fists, "I am so ready for some real action, finally!"

She nodded and smiled at the young bot, "We should get moving."

The two mechs followed her out of the base to their patrol area, the upper east side of Iacon, joking around the whole way there.

"Shut up you two." She said when they reached the area, turning around to find Ironhide attempting to stuff Smokescreen in a trash can, and Smokescreen both laughing and protesting, "We don't want to alert any 'Cons that we're here."

They looked a little disgruntled, but they quieted down a bit. The three Autobots continued walking the patrol route in silence, broken only by the occasional bored sigh from Smokescreen.

Finally, Chromia had had it. "Smokescreen, for the love of Primus, just shut up already!" She hissed

"Seriously." Ironhide groaned, "Can ya go five minutes without makin' some sort of annoyin' noise?"

"You're agreeing with her?" Smokescreen poked his glossa out at the two of them, "Well of course. Can't disagree with the Missus."

Ironhide and Chromia both began to sputter indignantly at this and Smokescreen rolled his optics, "Whatever. There aren't even any 'Cons on this stupid patrol route to hear me anyways; we've been walking for half an hour and we haven't seen anything!"

"You don't know that-"

"You're right, I don't." Smokescreen interrupted, "But I know that we sure as Pit aren't gonna find any action if we keep walking in a circle forever. I'm gonna go off on my own route; you guys are just slowing me down anyways."

"Slowin' you down?!" Ironhide said furiously, "Well, I'd hate to cramp yer style, ya obnoxious 'lil prick! Fine, go off on yer own then. No need to wait around fer us old, slow bots; go find yer fraggin' 'destiny'!"

"Fine!" Smokescreen said sourly, "I can handle any 'Cons I come across on my own anyways." He leapt away down the alley, springing off the walls and around a corner, yelling back, "Don't bother to try and keep up, slowpokes!" as he disappeared.

"Uggh, that stuck-up 'lil afthole!" Ironhide growled, "I swear, one of these days…." He made a punching motion with his fist.

"Might not be 'one of these days'." Chromia sighed, "Come on, we better find that stupid kid before he gets himself in trouble. And not just with you."

Ironhide shook his helm wearily and clumped behind Chromia. The two followed the route Smokescreen had taken, which wasn't hard to track considering how energetic the young bot was. He left a mess wherever he went.

The pair rounded the corner of an abandoned alley and froze immediately, optics wide.

"Well if it isn't my good ol' pals, Chromia and Ironhide." Hellcat drawled, shifting the strange looking blaster that she held to Smokescreen's helm. The poor bot was kneeling on the ground, terrified and unable to move.

"Seems you two escaped after I captured you last time." The feline femme purred as the two glared at her, "I'm here to ensure that none of you walk away alive this time."


	21. Chapter 21

"Let the kid go, Hellcat." Chromia said, "He's got nothing to do with this."

"Oh really?" Hellcat cocked her helm, "An Autobot doesn't have anything to do with being the enemy of a Decepticon?" The two only glared at her in response and she laughed, "Ah, this feels familiar doesn't it? A poor, cute Autobot mech helpless at my feet, my gun to his helm as his friends try desperately to save him. Of course, he ain't as cute as you, sugar."

She winked at Ironhide, who nearly gagged, "And this is no ordinary gun. Chromia, allow me to introduce you to what you helped create; Weapon R!"

"No…" Chromia's optics widened at the powerful gun holding Smokescreen captive

"What does it do?" Hellcat grinned maniacally, "So glad you asked! Not only is it capable of instantly vaporizing anyone foolish enough to get hit with it, but it also sucks the spark of the unfortunate bot into itself for fuel!"

"So," Hellcat smiled evilly, "Not much of an afterlife if your spark can't even make it to the Well."

"What have I done?" Chromia said, horrified. Ironhide turned to comfort her but at the same moment they both received a comm from Smokescreen as Hellcat prattled on.

:Guys, we gotta shut that thing down:

:Yeah? Well I don' see ya comin' up with any bright ideas, Destiny's Child: Ironhide commed back, a mix of angry and worried

:Actually, I got one: Smokescreen smirked, :Blaster gave me one of his new grenades to test out. If I pull the pin and jam it into the barrel of Weapon R, maybe she won't be able to fire it and it'll blow up in her face!:

:Smokescreen, no: Chromia shook her helm slightly, locking optics with the young bot, :It's too dangerous. Even if she doesn't shoot you, you'd be too close to the blast:

Smokescreen shrugged slightly, :She's gonna shoot me anyways. May as well do something about it:

:Smokescreen, I am your superior officer!: Chromia yelled over the comm, :I order you to stand down, do you hear me?!:

:Kid, please: Ironhide said, distraught, and Smokescreen looked up at him, like he always did.

He gave him a half-hearted smile and said, :Love ya, big bro:, before grabbing the grenade in his subspace, uncorking it and shoving it up the barrel of Weapon R.

"What the-" Hellcat questioned and then her optics widened and she dropped the gun. "Grena-" she yelled as she ran away but she didn't finish her sentence before the gun exploded.

Smokescreen tried to run, but the moment he got to his peds, the explosion blasted him forward into the wall of the alley.

"Smokescreen!" Chromia and Ironhide both yelled and raced toward him as he slid off the wall and onto the ground.

Chromia reached him first and eased him over onto his back, noting with a wince the bits of shrapnel digging into the youth's back and doorwings.

"Kid!" Ironhide said desperately, "Come on Smokes, wake up." He reached forward to shake his shoulders

"No!" Chromia slapped his servos away quickly, "The impact snapped his neck. If you shake him you'll make the damage worse."

"Primus." Ironhide's helm dropped, "Smokescreen, wake up please!"

The young bot coughed, energon flying from his mouth as his optics cracked open, "Did I...did I destroy it?"

"Yeah Smokes." Ironhide smiled sadly, "Ya broke it real good.". Smokescreen smiled a little and closed his optics and Ironhide panicked, "Smokescreen? Come on, stay with me buddy! Chromia!" He waved frantically, "Comm for help!"

"Ironhide…" She said sadly, watching the glow of Smokescreen's spark flicker in its chamber and die out, "It-It's too late."

"What are ya talkin' about, too late?!" Ironhide said desperately, "We can take him back to Red; he'll patch him up!"

Chromia shook her helm, tears dripping silently down her faceplates, "He's gone, 'Hide."

"He can't be-Smokescreen can't be gone." Ironhide swallowed the lump in his throat, and pulled the poor bot's motionless frame into his arms, "He's just a kid."

"Wrrgh?" Hellcat groaned, coming back online from the blast. Most of her soldiers were unconscious or dazed and she herself did not look well.

Ironhide wiped a few tears away, carefully deposited Smokescreen's frame on the ground, and walked slowly over to Hellcat.

"Such a shame; he was a cutie pie." Hellcat burbled, "Aww look who's been crying! You gonna cry some more, Autobot baby?"

"Yeah, probably." Ironhide stared her down, "That's what makes us better than you fraggin' 'Cons. We give a damn about our team; they're our family." He raised his gun and aimed the barrel at the center of her forehelm, "Ain't nobody gonna cry for you when yer gone, ya fraggin' bitch."

He squeezed the trigger and Hellcat's frame slumped to the ground. With the blast her soldiers seemed to come back to their senses a little.

"Retreat!" One of them yelled

:Hellcat and Weapon R are offline: Another commed as they ran away, :Send emergency ground bridge immediately:

"I'll-I'll comm for a ground bridge." Chromia said shakily once the Decepticons had left. Ironhide nodded, squeezing his optics shut.

:Base, this is Chromia. We need a ground bridge:

:Hey Chromia: Red commed back, :Sending ground bridge now. Chromia...all the Decepticons in Iacon are retreating. What has happened?:

:You'll know in a second: Chromia choked and ended the comm.

The green and blue ground bridge appeared a moment later, and Chromia began attempting to lift Smokescreen until she felt a servo on her shoulder.

"I got him." Ironhide said quietly and Chromia nodded. She watched the large silver mech carefully lift the body of his little brother, his shoulders shaking as he stepped into the ground bridge.

Her spark was practically breaking in half for the poor mech as they stepped into the base. He and Smokescreen were immediately swarmed with concerned bots, until Red Alert shoved his way and gave everyone a glare intense enough to melt metal.

Everyone took about four steps back except Blaster, who had optics only for his friend.

"Let me take a look at him." Red said and Ironhide shook his helm

"There ain't nothin' you can do anymore Red." Ironhide choked out, "He's offline."

"No!" Blaster burst out, shaking a little, and Chromia put her arm around the young bot.

"He took Weapon R offline with him. He died a hero, Blaster. You just remember that."

"We all will." Red Alert said hoarsely, and Ironhide nodded. He followed Red into the Medbay and gently set Smokescreen down on a medical berth.

"Goodbye little buddy." Ironhide said thickly. He walked slowly towards his quarters, and Chromia saw Optimus, one of his oldest friends, try to reach out.

"Ironhide, do you want to talk-"

"Nope." Ironhide cut him off and kept walking right past him, intent on just getting to his quarters.

 _He needs some time_ , Chromia thought and glanced sadly at the still body in the Medbay and the mournful atmosphere surrounding it. _Primus knows we all do._


	22. Chapter 22

Chromia graciously gave Ironhide a few weeks to process what had happened before she went to talk to him. After watching the miserable mech avoid talking to anyone, get angry and tired at the training room, and lock himself in his quarters at night, she had decided it was time

Seeing as it was after the training room's hours of operation, she headed for his quarters.

" 'Hide." She knocked on his door, "Lemme in."

With an annoyed sigh, Ironhide got up from his desk chair and opened the door, "What?"

She glanced up at him and said, "We need to talk."

He groaned, "Not you too. Dammit, I don' want to talk to anybot. Go away." He tried to close the door but she stuck her ped in it.

"I won't."

"Why the hell should I talk to you instead of the 20 other bots who asked?" Ironhide folded his arms

" 'Cuz I ain't asking." Chromia said stoutly, "And I'm more stubborn than any bot on this base, so I'll just keep bugging you. Let me in, so we can get this over with."

He glared at her and widened the door so she could squeeze through before he closed it. She glanced around his room, surprised to find it so clean.

"Wow, it's actually not a complete dump in here." She muttered to herself.

"Everyone's room looks like this, dumbaft." Ironhide sighed, "We don' have a lot of our own stuff, like possessions and crap, so the rooms just kinda look...empty. 'Cept maybe Jazz's and Blaster's."

Chromia nodded, "Well...you know I'm not very good at this, uh, talking stuff but...I just wanted to say I've been kinda worried about you. I mean, everyone has, but-"

Ironhide was sitting at his desk with his back to her, and he shook his helm angrily, "You don' give a damn about me, Chromia, and you know it. Stop pretendin' ya care. It's gettin' real old, real fast."

"You know somethin', afthole?" Chromia said impatiently, beginning to lose her temper, "I fraggin' hate when you pull this crap." She stormed over to him and spun his seat around so he was facing her, "I'm sorry I don't return your fragging feelings for me, but that doesn't mean I don't give a damn about you. You're still my friend, and I am here right now, putting up with your macho-mech bullshit because I care."

Ironhide closed his optics and jerked his chair back to face his desk, scrubbing his faceplates with his servos. "Fine." He grumbled, "What do ya wanna talk about?". Inwardly, he wondered at what he and Chromia had become "friends".

She was unusually quiet for a moment and then, "You blame yourself for what happened, don't you?"

"Of course I do, Chro-mo." He laid his helm down on his desk, "It was my fault. I could've stopped him from leavin' us, told him to wait, tackled him, anythin'. But instead I told him to go off on his own route. I knew somethin' bad would happen, I just knew it, but I let him go off on his own anyways. And now he's….gone."

"Ironhide." Chromia sighed softly, "It's not your fault that he's gone."

"Yes, it is."

"Well, you know what, if you're gonna play it that way, then it was my fault too." Chromia sat heavily on his berth, "I was there too, 'Hide. I could have done something to stop him from leaving. And I definitely shouldn't have tried to command him not to do it. I should have-I should have known ordering him around would only make him want to do it more." She smiled sadly, "Stupid rebellious kid."

"Yeah…" Ironhide said sorrowfully, "I miss that idiot."

"Hey." She put a servo on his shoulder, "You gonna be okay?"

He nodded, optics downcast, "Eventually."

"Well...anything I can do to make you feel better?"

"Ah, Chro-mo." He chuckled a little, "Ya don' want me to answer that question."

"...Frag it, Ironhide!" She quickly removed her servo from his shoulder, realizing his meaning

He smiled up at her, "I'll be alright Chro-mo. Long as ya keep buggin' me and bein' my friend."

"Gee, that was almost touching." Chromia rolled her optics and walked toward the door, "Better be careful or bots might start thinking you're just a big softie." She waved and walked out of the room, leaving Ironhide alone.

He sat there for a while longer, thinking about Smokescreen, and missing the young bot. Finally he shook himself and got up with a sigh to go get some energon.

He glanced around as he exited his quarters, realizing that night had fallen. Everyone was probably asleep, except those on guard duty.

Ironhide headed down the corridor towards the mess hall, trying to be as quiet as a mech of his size could. When he got to the mess hall, it was nearly empty, save a few bots.

Strongarm had just gotten off her shift and waved him over to the table she was sitting at. Suppressing a groan of annoyance, he grabbed a cube and headed over to the younger femme.

"Hey." He nodded to her

"Hey! How are you?" Strongarm said cheerfully. Ironhide shrugged and sat down and she pursed her lips, "Still feelin' down?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, if ya don' mind."

She nodded and was silent for a moment before she muttered, half to herself, "I wonder If I-no I shouldn't."

"Ya shouldn't what?" Ironhide raised an optic ridge

"I know something that I shouldn't tell you." Strongarm fretted, "But it would definitely make you feel better, and I really want you two to end up together…"

Ironhide choked on his energon, "You know somethin' about Chromia? Tell me, femme!"

She hesitated, "I shouldn't….she's my friend, and 'Star's the gossipy one, not me."

"Alright, alright, just tell me this." He sighed, "Is it about why she won't admit she likes me, or even consider bein' with me?"

"No." Strongarm shook her helm, "Even I don't know why that is. She doesn't open up very often."

"Believe me, I've noticed." Ironhide groaned, "I don' know what to do anymore; she won't stop pushin' me away. Maybe I should just give up…"

"No!" Strongarm burst out, "You can't give up 'Hide!" She buried her faceplates in her servos, "Uggghh, I shouldn't tell you this, but…"

"Yeah?" Ironhide said eagerly

"She had...she had a dream about you." Strongarm cringed, "A while ago…"

"What?!" Ironhide's optics widened, "What kind of dream?"

She glared at him, "What kind do you think?"

"Holy fraggin' Primus." Ironhide sat back in his chair, stunned, "About me? How do ya know?"

"Well, me and Firestar thought she was having a bad dream, 'cuz we could hear her crying out from our rooms." Strongarm took a breath, "But when we woke her up, her fans were going and she was all hot and bothered. So Firestar tackled her and forced her to admit that she had an interface dream. Firestar found out later that it was probably about you when she saw Chromia smiling at you. She teased her about it, and Chromia got all embarrassed and denied everything, but...who else could it be?"

"Scrap…" Ironhide trailed off, grinning widely, "Yer right, that did cheer me up."

"Don't tell her I told you!" Strongarm said worriedly and Ironhide nodded.

" 'Course I won't." He stood up to go, "Sorry, I gotta go...process."

She nodded and Ironhide quickly left the mess hall, dumping the empty energon cube on his way out.

As he wandered the halls, knowing he didn't really want to go back to his lonely quarters, he realized something. Initially, he had been pleased that Chromia had had an interface dream about him. The thought of her getting all hot and bothered kinda turned him on.

But now he was realizing that this was just another fact proving that Chromia was attracted to him, but kept pushing him away.

He looked up to realize his peds had bought him right to Chromia's door. He huffed angrily, deciding the femme about her actions, and banged loudly on her door.


	23. Chapter 23

Chromia opened her optics to find herself on a strange planet where her and her team had once battled the Decepticons. It was made entirely of moving cogs and gears, which had made it extremely difficult to battle on.

"Chromia…" A voice coughed and Chromia looked down at her peds to see him. He had fallen between the gears and was slowly being crushed. "Help me…" He pleaded, his too blue optics scared.

"Hold on, I'll get you out!" She cried, taking his servo and struggling to pull him, to no avail.

"Chromia, we've gotta go!" An unknown force began pushing her away from him.

"Please don't leave me." He begged, "Don't let me die. You let me die!"

"No!" Chromia gasped, tears streaming down her faceplates as he was crushed to death by the gears, "No! No! I'm so sorry…."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

She jolted awake to someone banging on her door.

"Chromia." 'Hide said angrily, "Open up."

She shook herself and quickly wiped the tears away before getting up and sliding the door open.

"What?" She asked, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice.

"I'll tell ya what." He said furiously, barging his way into her quarters, the door sliding shut behind him, "You've been pretendin' ya don' like me long enough. I have proof that ya like me and-" He broke off suddenly, noticing the look on her faceplates for the first time, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Chromia laughed shakily, "Just nightmares. You know how those can be." She cleared her throat and glanced down at the floor, "Anyways, you were yelling about something?"

He sighed, "Are ya sure yer alright?"

"Yeah. Fine."

"Good." His optics narrowed, " 'Cuz I'm still pissed." He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms, "Seems like you've been havin' some interestin' dreams lately."

"What do you-" Her optics widened, "No."

"Yes." He glared at her, "I know all about yer little rendezvous with me."

"Which one told you?" Chromia said dangerously

"What?"

"Who. Told. You."

"I'm not tellin' ya, crazy femme." Ironhide rolled his optics, "Knowin' you, you'd probably offline the poor femme. I should tell ya she only told me 'cuz she was tryin' to cheer me up, though." He scowled at her, "As ya can see, it didn't work. What I don't get," He pointed an angry digit in her faceplates, "Is why ya go on with this stupid charade, pretendin' ya don' like me and pushin' me away."

"Because I don't like you!" Chromia seethed

"Bullshit!" Ironhide yelled, "Ya had a fraggin' interface dream about me!"

"Actually, I didn't." Chromia glared at him, "We never even interfaced."

"Really?" Ironhide grinned, "So that means that Firestar and Strongarm could hear ya moanin' all the way in their rooms, just from the foreplay? Damn," he mused, "Dream-me is pretty good."

"Shut up." She flushed a little, "The point is that I'm not even slightly attracted to you. It was just my processor glitching or something."

"You're not attracted to me?" He placed his servos on either side of her, trapping her against the wall

"No, I'm not." She glared up at him defiantly

"Such a liar." He sighed and stared at her mischievously, "So, if yer not attracted to me, I wonder what happens if I do this?"

He leaned forward and gave her a scorching kiss. She almost managed to pull away, but he ran a digit up her spinal strut and she lost all of her senses for a moment.

He had her pinned against the wall and was kissing her fiercely, biting her bottom lip. It was so searingly hot that she had to kiss back, twining her digits behind his helm.

" 'Hide." She moaned into his mouth, and in response he ran a servo across her aft to the back of her leg, hooking it around his waist.

"So," He panted, grinning mockingly at her, "Not attracted to me, huh?"

"What?" Her chassis was heaving and her optics were dazed. Suddenly she snapped into focus and shoved him off her, "You afthole! I'm going to fragging murder you!"

"Hahaha." He chuckled, ducking as she grabbed a pillow from the berth and chucked it at him, "I almost had ya, Chro-mo."

"You know what?!" She seethed, flinging the other pillow.

He grinned evilly, "What?"

"It doesn't matter!" She shouted, "It doesn't matter if I'm attracted to you. I still don't want to be in a relationship with you! Nothing has changed, afthole, except the fact that I am EXTREMELY pissed now!"

"Why?" He yelled back, "Why in Pit doncha wanna be in a relationship with me?"

"Oh, like you're such a swell guy." She said sarcastically, "Pull your helm outta your aft, Ironhide, You're not the greatest mech on the fragging planet."

"I wasn't sayin' I was!" He was beginning to turn blue with rage, "Why cantcha just tell me? Then maybe I'll finally be able to getcha outta my fraggin' processor!"

"I don't have to tell you anything." She said icily, "Get out of my room."

"Chromia…."

"Get. Out."

"Fine." He stormed out angrily, slamming the sliding door closed behind him.

Chromia slid down the wall to the floor and rested her helm on her knees, trying to just vent normally and hold in the tears.

Strongarm and Firestar had been pressed up against the wall in Firestar's room, listening. When they felt the wall quake with the force of Ironhide slamming the door, they glanced at each other.

"Well." Firestar sighed, "That seemed to go well."

"Yeah…."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Chromia had a mission the next day, and between the nightmare and Ironhide, she'd gotten absolutely no recharge for it.

She wearily headed to Prowl's office so he could debrief her before she left. Instead of Prowl, however, she found Optimus and Jazz waiting for her.

"Hey Prime." She said confusedly, "I thought Prowl was gonna debrief us?"

"Me too." Jazz grinned, "And no offense Prime, but he was the sexier option."

As with most inappropriate things Jazz said, Optimus chose to ignore this statement and said, "This mission is highly important, which is why I myself am debriefing you, and why there is only two of you. A few days ago, we located a strong energy signal coming from the mountains just outside of Kaon. We believe it may be a fragment of pure energon, which, if you did not know, can be used to restart the spark of a deceased Cybertronian."

"No way." Jazz's optics grew larger, "Smokescreen…"

"Yes." Prime nodded, "Now, there are only a few of these pure energon shards in existence, but until one is recovered, I would like you to keep this information to yourselves. We do not want to get anyone's hopes up, especially Ironhide's."

Chromia and Jazz nodded, and Optimus smiled tiredly at them, "Good. Hopefully, if this goes as planned, we will have our young bot back."

He instructed them to take Ultra Magnus' old ship to the mountains and begin searching all of the caverns and caves there.

"Ya know, I don' know if Prime knows this," Jazz said as he sat down at the controls of the ship, "But I've never flown a ship before."

"I have." Chromia sighed, "Move over."

Surprised, Jazz relinquished the controls to her, and she soon had the craft flying through the air.

When they arrived at the mountains nearly two hours later, and Chromia had landed the ship, Jazz gazed up at the mountains and whistled.

" 'Mia, how many caverns and caves do ya think are in those things?"

She sighed, "This could take a while."

Nearly eight hours after they began combing the caves, Chromia finally found something hidden behind a large rock.

She struggled to push the rock out of the way and reached in to grab the rod shaped stone wedged behind it. It was a grey, mottled color, but once she brushed all the dust and mold off of it, she realized what it was.

"Ya find anything yet, 'Mia?" Jazz called from around the corner.

There was a pause and then, "Nope, nothing yet." as Chromia slipped the shard quietly into her subspace.


	24. Chapter 24

Jazz and Chromia arrived back at the base having failed at their mission. Or so Jazz thought.

"Hey 'Mia." Jazz said warmly, "I can handle the report to Prime and Prowl; why doncha go catch a break?"

"Are you sure?" She said guiltily, the energon shard weighing heavily in her subspace.

"Yeah." Jazz shrugged, "We've had a long day."

"Okay." Chromia watched the saboteur walk away before darting off to her quarters. She hurriedly shut and locked the door behind her and sat on the edge of her berth.

Shakily, she withdrew the shard from her subspace and held it in her servos, rubbing the smooth glass, and feeling like the worst kind of traitor.

 _But I'm not a traitor,_ She argued with herself, _It's for a good cause…._

 _Is it though?_ She thought miserably _, Why should he deserve to come back more than Smokescreen?_

 _The answer is, he doesn't,_ said a new voice in her helm.

 _What?_ Chromia set the shard down on her table, glancing around the room _, Is someone….speaking?_ Although she could have sworn she had heard the voice in her helm.

 _You betcha,_ The voice laughed and the laugh was so familiar to her _._

 _I must be losing my processor,_ She groaned and then asked hesitantly _, ….Astrosky?_

The grey and blue mech seemed to materialize out of nowhere next to her, nearly giving her a spark attack. He was sleek and slim in design, clearly built more for speed than strength, and his optics were a bright sky blue.

"Miss me?" He grinned

"Holy Primus." Chromia whispered, horrified, "I've gone insane."

He chuckled again, "Naw, you haven't. I've just come to talk to your crazy aft for a sec. But first, how ya been?"

Astrosky had always been a bubbly, light hearted sort of mech. He was always cracking jokes, always trying to lighten everyone's grim mood from the war. Right now, however, Chromia could not take his casualness.

"How have I been?! How have I been?" She burst into angry tears and his optics widened, "I've been a wreck, you fragging afthole!" She yelled, "I freaking killed you, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I haven't slept since that day, and now I'm lying to the Autobots. And you think, after all this time and all this crap, you can just pop in real quick and say how ya been?!"

"That may not have been my best choice of words." He said weakly, but Chromia plowed right over him

"And now my dead boyfriend is here." She stopped and wiped her optics quickly, "How are you even here? Are you a ghost? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, love." He hugged her tightly, "Never better, as a matter of fact." He pulled back, still holding her shoulders and gazed at her sternly, "And you did _not_ kill me. It was my own damn fault for falling in those gears so stupidly."

"I left you." There were tears cascading down her faceplates as she sobbed, "I left you to die, Astro."

"Stop it!" He shook her vigorously, "Please! You know why I'm here Chromia? Why I haven't moved on?"

She sniffled, "Why?"

"Because of you." He sighed, "You're my unfinished business. I can't move on, because I can't leave you like this, so I'm just...stuck." He closed his optics, "Why do you feel so _guilty_? Why can't you just forgive yourself?"

"Because it's my fault."

"It is not!" He groaned, "Please, Chromia, you gotta let me go. What are you _doing_? Sitting here, debating whether you should bring me or the kid back. I don't wanna come back! I'm happy with my life now."

"Really?" She hugged him closer

"Really." He patted her back and smiled, "But the kid isn't; I talked to him. He's dying to be alive again. He feels like he hasn't fulfilled his 'destiny'."

"Oh, Smokescreen." Chromia laughed sadly.

"You know what you have to do." Astro smiled at her

"Are you sure you're okay?" She said worriedly

"That wasn't the only thing I came to talk to you about. I've been _dying_ to talk about this Ironhide guy." He sprawled across her berth and grinned at her.

"Haha." Chromia said sarcastically, "Corny."

"Seriously, when are you gonna get with this guy?" Astrosky said eagerly, "You guys would be perfect together."

"My ex trying to convince me to get with another mech?" Chromia said teasingly, "Don't see that often."

He rolled his optics, "I've also been your best friend since we were sparklings, so I can say what I want."

Chromia laughed nervously, "Well, what do you want to know?"

"I want to know why you're being a glitch to him." Astrosky said, "I mean, you are a glitch normally, but…."

"Hey!"

He grinned a sharklike grin, "I'm just teasing ya, love. I've missed getting to mess with you."

"I've missed you too, Astro." Chromia said sadly, "It's so weird not getting to talk to you all the time."

"Well, I _am_ a fabulous listener." He said dramatically, and Chromia chuckled, "So, talk to me now. Tell me about this Ironhide guy."

"I don't like him." She said stubbornly

"Sure."

"No, really."

"Well, that is just too bad." Astrosky sighed, "I just happen to know exactly how he feels about you, but…"

"Wait….you do?"

He nodded evilly, "I do."

"Well?" Chromia demanded, "Spit it out already!"

"Ah, ah, ah." He tsked, "Now why would I go spilling the poor mech's secrets to some femme who isn't even interested in him? Hardly seems fair."

Chromia rolled her optics, "Fine. I might like him a little. Just enough to be curious what he thinks about me. That's all."

"Well…." Astrosky ran a servo over his helm, pretending to be in distress, "I don't know...I suppose I may as well tell you. Just to satisfy your curiosity."

Chromia flopped down next to him eagerly and he smirked a little before continuing, "Ah, the passions of love! It's so endearing to see two young, alive bots in the throes of-"

"Could we skip the melodrama please, Astro?" Chromia interrupted, "I'm not a patient femme."

"As I well know, love." He patted her servo, "As I was saying, Ironhide….he thinks you're beautiful, Chromia. He thinks you're the most headstrong, infuriating, perfect femme he's ever met, and you're driving the poor mech crazy. He can't stop thinking about you; your smile, your optics, blah blah blah blah blah." He huffed, annoyed, "Honestly, he's practically in love with you at this point."

Chromia smiled a little, before sighing guiltily, "I can't believe he said all those amazing things about me, but…"

"But?"

"I still don't like him." She said stoutly, "I don't, I tell you."

Astrosky groaned, "Come on! I know you like him too, the same way I know how he feels about you. Why won't you let yourself fall for him?" There was a silence and then he sat up bolt right, "I know why."

"What?"

"I know why you won't let yourself be with him." Astrosky stared at her, "It's because of what happened to me. You don't want to lose him too."

"I don't-" Chromia choked, tears leaking from her optics again, "Oh, Astro…"

"Chromia." He wrapped her in a hug again, "Hush, femme, it's okay. I'm so sorry…"

"For what?" She said distraughtly, her arms wrapped tight around his neck.

"For leaving you."

She hugged him tighter, pressing her faceplates against his familiar, comforting chassis, "It's not your fault. But now things are so different…"

"I know." He sighed, and sat on the edge of the berth with her, transferring her to a side hug, "Chromia...you know how you said I was your ex, earlier?"

"I didn't mean…" Chromia said guiltily

"No, I'm glad you did." His optics danced happily, "I met a femme, Chromia."

"A femme?" Chromia's processor stuttered, "Where? In the Well?"

"Haven't been to the Well yet." He shook his helm, and twanged her nose playfully, "Still got my unfinished business. She had some too, so that was how we met, but when hers was resolved…" He trailed off.

"She moved on?" Chromia guessed.

He nodded unhappily, "I told her to. I didn't want her to be stuck here like me when she has the chance to go to the Well. Still...I miss her. She's a sweet little thing."

"I'm glad you found someone so great, Astro."you found someone so amazing, Astro." Chromia smiled, but her smile faded quickly, "I'm sorry I'm keeping you stuck here"

" 'S alright." He shrugged and grinned, "I'm glad I got a chance to talk to ya. You know….we might be going our separate ways, but you're still my best friend, Chromia."

"Yeah, you're not getting out of that." Chromia punched him playfully on the arm, "I seem to recall you promising we'd be 'best friends forever'."

"I was eight solar cycles old!" He protested, grinning.

"Still counts."

"I need to be going." Astrosky rubbed his neck unhappily, "I was technically only supposed to be here for a few minutes. Before I go, however," He grinned mischievously, "I feel I ought to inform you that we have an eavesdropper." He whispered the last word and inclined his helm towards the door.

"A what?!" Chromia whispered furiously, "Astro! How could you not tell me?"

He shook his helm, tiptoed over to the door, and announced in a loud, stage actor's voice, "Introducing the incredible, the amazing, the un-believ-able, Ironhide!". And with that he yanked the door open and the large silver mech tumbled into the room.


	25. Chapter 25

"Ironhide?!" Chromia stared at him, a mixture of surprised and angry

The silver mech got to his peds hastily, "I came to apologize for the other night…" He shot a strange look at Astrosky, who flashed him the biggest grin.

"How long were you listening?" Chromia said furiously

"Not long." The mechs said at the same time.

"Who's this?" Ironhide jerked his helm at Astrosky.

"Astro, this is Ironhide." Chromia said exasperatedly, "Ironhide, Astrosky."

"I'm dead." Astro informed him cheerily as they shook servos. Ironhide's grip slackened a little.

"Sorry...what?"

"Dead." He bounced on his peds, "Deceased. Offline. No longer of this world." Chromia sat heavily on the berth and Astro patted her shoulder, "Sorry, love, but it's the harsh truth."

"Uhh...okay?" Ironhide just stared at him, "Well...what in Pit are ya doin' here?"

"I came to talk to her." Astro nodded, "Seeing as we've had our chat, I think I'm gonna be moving along."

"Do you have to go?" Chromia said sadly, standing up.

He embraced her lovingly, "The dead can't stay forever, love."

"I wish they could."

Astro released her and turned to Ironhide, who had been glaring at him a little, "Don't give me that look."

"What look?"

Astro imitated 'Hide's scowl perfectly, "This one." Ironhide rolled his optics and Astro continued, "She'll tell you everything; you two have a lot to talk about." He was beginning to fade into a darkish grey in some parts, and he glanced down at himself, realizing this.

"Take care of her for me, will you?" He said softly, his faceplates a mixture of scared and excited.

"Astro?" Chromia whispered sadly.

He was now light grey and parts of him had completely disappeared. His smile was bittersweet when he looked at her, "Love ya, Chromia."

And then he was gone.

Chromia sank onto her berth, breathing deeply and trying to hold back tears, and 'Hide sat next to her, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"Are you okay?" He said awkwardly, "I have no idea what in Pit's going on but….he was important to ya. I can tell that much."

"He was my best friend." Chromia said heavily, "Since we were sparklings. We've always been together, and when we were older and were going on missions for the crew of the Avenge, we started dating." She laughed sadly, "He was always such a cocky bastard. Always so sure of himself, flipping around and doing tricks, showing off in the middle of the battlefield. And once, when we were battling a squadron of Decepticons, we were on a planet made of moving cogs and gears. Astro was doing his usual routine, leaping over 'Cons, blasting 'em from behind, and he got caught in one of the gears." Chromia paused to wipe her optics, "I tried to pull him out, but the 'Cons were charging us and our pilot, Roller was pushing me away. He was so scared, 'Hide. He said, 'Please don't leave me.' And I left him. I left him to die alone."

"Oh Chro-mo." Ironhide squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, unsure of what he could possibly say to make her feel better.

"That's not even the worst part." Chromia's shoulders slumped, "Astro showed up because I went on a mission today, with Jazz."

"A mission to do what?" He prodded.

"To find an energon shard." She whispered, "To bring back Smokescreen."

He inhaled sharply, "To bring him….back?"

"Yes."

"Did you find it?" He asked eagerly.

She nodded wearily, stood up and walked to the table where she had set down the energon shard. She lifted it, feeling the smooth glass seem to crackled in her digits, before handing it to Ironhide with a sigh.

The poor mech had to sit down he was so overwhelmed, staring at the shard in his servos. "I can bring him back." He whispered happily. He glanced up at her, smiling, "We can bring him back, Chro-mo!" He noticed her guilty faceplates finally, "What's the matter? Aintcha excited?"

" 'Hide." She said wearily, "There's a reason Optimus hasn't brought Smokescreen back yet. There's a reason the shard is in my quarters."

He just stared at her, "What's the reason?"

"I wasn't going to give it to you." Chromia closed her optics unhappily, "When I found the shard on the mission, I slipped it into my subspace. I lied-" She choked a little, full of shame, "I lied to Jazz, told him I hadn't found anything. And then we returned to base a failure."

"Why?" Ironhide said, in complete disbelief, "Why wouldja do that?'

"Isn't it obvious?" She scrubbed her faceplates with her servos and sat down with a resigned sigh, "I was going to be selfish. I was going to bring back Astro instead."

He made a strangled sound in his throat and Chromia caught optics with him, "I'm so sorry 'Hide. So, so sorry. I was being selfish and stupid, and I don't think I could have ever gone through with it. I couldn't do that to you, or to Smokescreen."

Ironhide shook his helm, kind of shocked, but then glanced at her. He could see in those sapphire optics, how clouded they were, that she felt terrible, and he sighed and put a servos on top of hers, "I forgive ya. You almost did somethin' really wrong, but in the end ya did the right thing, and I'm just happy ya did."

" 'Hide…"

"I wasn't done." He narrowed his optics, "You still owe me an explanation."

She looked confused, "I thought I just-"

"Not about that." He waved his servo, "Ya still haven't told me why ya won't even think about goin' on a date with me. I gotta feeling it's got somethin' to do with that fruitcake, Astro. You still, ya know...together?"

"Primus no!" Chromia's faceplates warmed, "Honestly, I don't think we would be dating even if he was alive right now. We're too different, and I know way too many personal things about him, since we were friends. I don't even know why in Pit we were dating in the first place."

"So what is it then?"

"It's just-" She sighed, shoulders slumping, "I don't want to get too close to you. I guess I'm afraid I'll lose you, like I lost him. And I can't go through that again."

"Ah, Chro-mo." He grinned reassuringly, "Ya ain't gonna lose me. I'm a tough mech; I don' go down easy. Yer stuck with me."

"No one ever plans to go offline 'Hide." She said sadly.

"So what, yer just gonna be alone yer whole life?"

"Maybe." She said uncertainly, "Unless the war ends…"

"The war's been goin' on since before we were created." Ironhide sighed, "And I suspect it'll still be goin' on long after we're gone. But that don' mean you can't be happy and live yer life. And if I die like yer worried about," He shrugged, "You know I'll see you again someday, just like you'll see Astro." He wrapped his servos around one of hers, "Please, Chro-mo? Just consider it. All I ask."

She pondered for a moment, and then a mischievous smile crept to her faceplates, "Okay. I've considered it."

"That was fast." 'Hide said miserably, thinking she had decided she still didn't like him, "What didja decide?"

She grinned and yanked 'Hide forward with the servos still holding hers, planting a kiss firmly across his lips.

"Mmm!...Chromia." He sighed delightedly, kissing her back. When they finally broke apart, he was practically gasping for air, "After all that...ya just...decided...why not?"

"I've wasted too much damn time trying to stay away from you 'Hide." She smirked, tracing the line from his jaw to his neck, "I suppose we'll need to make up for lost time."

"Alright." He chuckled happily, "Hey."

"What?"

"You still gotta give Prime this thing." He hefted the shard in his servo, "Explain what happened. Make things right."

"Not looking forward to it." She sighed and motioned to him, "Come on. You can at least walk me there."

They began walking towards the Prime's office, a journey that seemed too short as Chromia dreaded Optimus' reaction with every step. Finally, they reached his door and Chromia stared at it uncertainly.

"Primus...I can't do this."

"You can and you will." 'Hide said firmly, "But if it makes you feel better…"

"What?"

"As a reward for tellin' the truth." Ironhide bowed mockingly, "I'll take ya on a date. I'll even be romantic, if ya want me to."

"You being romantic." Chromia teased, "Now this I gotta see."

"Is that a yes?"

She smiled a little, "I'm looking forward to it." She gave his servo a little squeeze before knocking on the door and stepping inside.

He watched her go, optics shining with happiness, and when the door was shut, he strolled away, saying excitedly to himself, "I'm takin' Chromia on a date!" He couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that that beautiful, headstrong femme was finally all his.

Ironhide knew she was a handful and she had her own baggage(they both did). But despite this, despite the war, despite the gloom that seemed to hang around the base now, he couldn't help but feel that everything was right.

 **A/N And its finally done! Like I said, I wasn't as invested in this story, but I'm glad I got to wrap this up in a nice way. Let me know what you guys think of the whole thing, and stay tuned for my next Ratchet and Moonracer fic!**


End file.
